What is Happening ?
by KIRI NO BASHOE
Summary: Xanxus is getting married ? What is going on ? Is the world gonna end ? Oh, if that didn't scared the freak out of you, the things that will be happening next will ! *Take Note*:This is an XS story! Not character x OC!
1. The News

**A/N ：To those who read my previous XS fic, thank you very much. To be honest, I planned that as a starting to my new story, this. I've been plotting this for quite some time already in my... well, head/brain. I know that my english is very poor, and I do hope whoever reads this enjoy the story, that hopefully will turn out the way I originally plotted it...**

**Disclaimer ：I don't own KHR**

* * *

Xanxus made his way towards the Ninth's office. He was informed by Iemitsu that Timoteo had an urgent matter that needed him. It's not as if Xanxus actually cared about what the old man had with him. But the Varia is still serving under the Ninth, so there's no way he can reject his old man's assignments to him.

Xanxus didn't even bother to knock when he reached the Ninth's office and just opened the door. As he stepped inside, he saw his guardians were all already inside.

Bel was sitting lazily on the couch. Mammon in his arms, counting his money.

Levi is standing beside the Ninth's desk.

Lussuria, apparently had waited eagerly for his arrival, is standing in front of him at the door.

Squalo is leaning against the wall beside the door.

And of course, the Ninth sitting by his desk, with the kind smile on his face.

"You're finally here, my son." Timoteo greeted Xanxus.

"Ya, hurry up and tell me what you called me here for." Xanxus questioned, not very politely.

"Well, the thing is that..." the Ninth didn't manage to finish that line before he felt silent and stared at Xanxus the way a father looked at his son.

"What is it?"

"..."

Xanxus glanced at the rest in the room. None of them dared to speak up. Not even the usually noisy Squalo. The room is filled with tension. But their expressions did show something.

Bel, even with his bangs covering his eyes, did not have his usual Cheshire grin on his face. Instead, it was replaced by a slight frown. Mammon pulled his hood lower to cover up more parts of his face. In addition, using the notes in his hands to cover up the remaining parts that cannot be covered. Levi tried to make a serious face but failed. Lussuria also had a sad expression on his face. He's not screaming like a girl like he usually did. Squalo lowered his head so that his eyes were covered by his bangs, not showing any emotions.

Xanxus figured that he's not going to get anything out from his guardians so he just turned back to face the old man.

"Hurry up and tell me why you called me here and stop wasting my time!" Xanxus growled, beginning to get impatient.

The Ninth sighed and beginned his speech again. "Well, my son. The Vongola Famiglia had a war for about one month with another famiglia, the Fiancata Famiglia."

"If you called me here just to tell me about a war taking place in between the Vongola and another famiglia and wanted the help from my squad, just say it. Don't waste my time." Xanxus cut in before the Ninth can finish what he wanted to say.

"My son, please be patient and listen to what I'm going to say." Timoteo replied calmly. "After having about one month of war between the two famiglias, we came up with an agreement."

"What is it?"

"We agreed to have a marriage between one people from each famiglia for the end of the war." Timoteo answered. He sighed again and looked straight into Xanxus's eyes. "My son, this marriage is the only way to end the war between the two famiglias. So, will you acknowledge this?"

Xanxus stared at the Ninth with a death glare and sent out murderous aura around him, causing the rest in the room to twitch a little at the sight.

"So..." Xanxus beginned "what you're saying now is that you had a war with another famiglia. And everything turned out to be a big mess. And now you're telling _me_ to go clean up all the mess you made by marrying someone from the other side?" As he finished that sentence, the aura around him became more threatening, causing a small gulp to escape from his guardians' throat.

"My son, please understand." Timoteo said, remaining to be calm. "There has been a lot of sacrifices during the war. Both of the famiglia wished for the end for this war. We all know that a marriage between the two famiglias is the best way to prevent war from happening again."

"Why don't you just let that Sawada brat and his guardians take care of them then?" Xanxus questioned.

Timoteo sighed again. "I don't want to drag Tsunayoshi-kun into all these mafia-related things if ever possible, even though he is going to be the next boss. He is in fact still a middle schooler and lack of knowledge to things that had gone around in the mafia. If we could settle things on our own, I don't want him to have any relation with it."

Timoteo pulled out a piece of paper from the drawer of his desk after he finished saying that.

"The girl you're going to marry is called Meridionale, the sister of the young boss of the Fiancata Famiglia." Timoteo said as he handed the paper to Xanxus.

Xanxus took the paper and examined the paper, which apparently shows a picture of a girl, most likely the girl known as "Meridionale". She had long bangs like Bel, but was swept to the sides so her baby blue eyes are visible. Her hair is black that extended to her waist.

"Ninth," Lussuria asked this time. "when is the wedding?"

The Ninth turned to look at Lussuria before answering. "It's not decided yet. The two famiglias decided to give the two people some time to work on their relationship before we decide on the actual date."

"Bossu," Levi spoke this time."are you really going to marry a girl from another famiglia?"

Xanxus turned around to look at Squalo, who is still leaning against the wall. His head is tilted up by now and his eyes stared at Xanxus like the rest of the group, waiting for his answer.

"It's not your choice in deciding whether or not you want to get married or not." the Ninth replied before Xanxus could answer. "The marriage had already been confirmed by both famiglias. That's something that had been decided."

Xanxus kept his eyes on Squalo, though not making it obvious. He had the same expression as everyone else : the worry and wonder of what is going to happen in the near future. There's no any sign sadness or melancholy that his boss is going to get married. He probably still don't understand the feelings inside Xanxus and still threats him like a boss. Nothing more. Nothing less.

"If there's nothing more you're going to say, then I'm leaving." Xanxus said as he turned around and walked towards the door that is just right behind him.

"My son," the Ninth said as Xanxus took his leave. "please do take some time to think about it. I'm sure you're not mentally prepared for any of these yet. So go spend some time to think things through."

Xanxus continued walking, completely ignoring the Ninth and made his way towards his own office.

* * *

"I wonder which is worse. The fact that Boss is going to marry a girl from a supposingly enemy famiglia. Or the fact that _WE _are actually helping them by writing and sending out these stupid invitations." asked Bel, handing over a just-finished-invitation to Mammon.

"My personal opinion," replied Mammon as he put it into a bag with the rest of the invitations. "is the fact that we are doing _this_ without getting paid."

"Mammon-chan, don't be like that." Lussuria said as he looked up from the invitation he is currently writing. "We should be happy that Boss had finally managed to find a girl for him to love for the rest of his life and can finally have an heir to succeed the Varia boss' seat."

"True. But you're kind of missing the fact that Boss haven't even meet this girl yet, and who knows if he liked her or not?" Mammon pointed out.

"Ushishi, good point Mammon." Bel laughed his signature laugh. "But... why is Boss the one getting married? There's a lot of people to choose from in the whole Vongola right?"

"Well, the girl is the sister of the young boss of the famiglia. So the Ninth and his guardians is a definite no-no. And that Sawada brat and his guardians were only middle schoolers, they're way too young to get married. Besides, the one who got married because of famiglia alliance is usually the head of a main group of the famiglia. So that's probably the main reason why Boss is chosen." Squalo answered Bel's question without even looking up from his invitation-writing.

By then, everyone in the room had already stopped whatever they're doing and stared at Squalo who didn't notice, or at least pretended not to notice, and continued writing the invitation like nothing had happened.

The rest gathered at the other corner of the table, opposite of where Squalo is sitting, and started their little discussion.

"I'm really worried about Squ-chan." Lussuria began. "I don't know if he'll ever accept this."

"Even if he doesn't, he probably won't show it." Mammon continued. "And it would means that we cannot do anything."

"The proud Squalo is never going to admit such a thing." said Bel. "But it's quite obvious already, seeing that he's been a lot quieter lately."

"Why are we even discussing about this?" Levi protested. "How he feels is none of our business. We should worry about the Boss instead."

"Ushishishi. If you don't want to discuss about this, feel free to leave and let _us_ discuss properly." Bel smirked as he took out his knives. "Hurry up and leave before I started target-practising."

A cold sweat felled off Levi's forehead before Lussuria interrupted.

"Mama, Bel-chan don't be like that. Levi-chan too. A marriage isn't just about the groom and the bride, but also their families. This marriage will definitely change a lot of things in the Vongola from now on."

"In other words, _we_ will be affected too." Mammon stated.

"Ushishishi...The Prince don't like the sound of that, Mammon."

"Mama, don't worry Bel-chan." Lussuria attempted to calm the young Prince down. "Of course there's won't be a 180 degree change in our lives. Most is probably just that from then on, the girl will have the title of the wife of the boss of Varia."

"Then does that make her position higher than Squalo?" Mammon asked.

"Well..." Lussuria was cut off when Squalo suddenly smashed his pen along with his hand on the table, with a lot of force.

Everyone turned around to see Squalo stood up from his seat and headed towards Mammon and handed him the finished-invitation.

"Here, that should do it. We're done for the day." Squalo said as he took his leave. "I'm going to train now."

The rest stared as he left the room and closed the door behind him, then they quickly turned to face each other again.

"Do you think he heard us?"

"Who knows. He probably won't say or do anything even if he did anyway..."

"Awww~ I'm still worried..."

* * *

**A/N: Ya, I think that'll do for chpt 1 ... I personally think it's a bit short... I prefer stories with each chpt around 10,000 words or so... & this is definitely a lot lesser than that...**

**YAY ! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME ! This day turned out worse than I expected though...*sad***

**To anyone who is interested in knowing when I'll update the new chpt: I probably will update the next chpt soon... if I got no problem with my english that is...**


	2. How's everyone doing?

**A/N: Hello ! I didn't expect there to be reviews within just 1 night ! Thank you all !**

**Oww~ my stomach hurts~ What am I ? Irie ?**

**Anyway, here's chpt 2 ! *drum rolls***

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR even if I want to !**

* * *

-Kokuyou Land-

"Kufufufu. Come out now, you Arcobaleno. Your illusions cannot fool me." Mukuro smirked as a small pile of indigo mist appeared in front of him.

"Yare yare." came a small voice from inside the mist as it dispersed to reveal a hood-wearing infant floating in the air.

"Kufufu, what do you want from me, Arcobaleno?" Mukuro asked the little infant.

"Order from the Ninth." Mammon answered, handing over an envelope to Mukuro.

"Kufufu. What do we have here?" Mukuro asked as he examined the envelope.

"Read it." Mammon replied before he disappeared in the indigo mist again.

"Kufufu." Mukuro laughed as he opened the envelope and took out a folded piece of paper. He unfold it and started reading.

"Oya, oya oya oya."

* * *

-Namimori Reception room-

Hibari raised his tonfas when he noticed the presence in the room.

"Come out now, you hiding herbivore. Or I'll bite you to death."

Mammon appeared within a cloud of indigo mist again.

"Explain yourself for intruding my school, you infant." Hibari threatened Mammon by standing up from his seat and took a step closer to Mammon.

"I don't want to come here either." answered Mammon. "I really hate doing this without payment. But the Ninth ordered this so I don't have a choice."

Hibari reached out for the indigo mist that appeared in front of him to reveal an envelope.

"Now my job here is done. I'm leaving." Mammon said before he vanished into the mist again.

"Hnn" Hibari opened the envelope to reveal a piece of paper...

* * *

-Cavallone Famiglia-

"Wow-ouch-oof!" Dino cried as he fell off the stairs at the sight of the indigo mist appearing in front of him.

"Yare yare." Mammon said as he the mist dispersed itself. "Still clumsy as always, I see."

Dino sat up and faced Mammon. "Hehe. Ya, I guess..." Dino laughed as he scratched the back of his head. "What brings you here, Mammon?"

"I was sent here by the Ninth." Mammon answered.

"For what?"

"This" Mammon handed Dino an envelope.

"Read it. Or you're going to pay me for specially coming here without any payment." Mammon said before vanishing into his own illusion.

"Hn?" Dino stared at the envelope in his hand before hesitatedly opened it. A folded letter is inside. Dino carefully unfold the letter and began reading it.

"WHAT?"

* * *

-Namimori Middle Rooftop-

"Come out now, Viper. I know you're there." Reborn said, holding up his Leon-gun.

"It's Mammon." a voice was heard before a cloud of indigo mist appeared, revealing Mammon.

"What did you come to Japan for?" Reborn questioned.

"If it wasn't because I was ordered by the Ninth to come here, I won't be here anyway." Mammon answered.

"What did the Ninth say?"

Indigo mist appeared in front of Reborn to reveal an envelope.

"Inform Sawada and his guardians for me, why don't you?" Mammon asked as Reborn took the envelope.

"What is this about?"

"Read it. I'm not going to waste my time explaining to you. Especially when I won't receive any payment." Mammon answered as he disappeared in his mist illusion.

"Hn" Reborn examined the envelope before opening it and taking out a piece of paper.

"Soka..."

* * *

-Varia Mansion-

"Ahh! Mammon-chan, you're back already? That was fast." Lussuria said as he came out from the kitchen, wearing his girly pink apron.

"I just went to main places and used my illusion to send out the invitations to the rest that are not important." Mammon replied before sitting on a chair and drinking his strawberry milk.

"Ushishishi. Welcome back, Mammon." said Bel as he walked down the stairs and reached the living room.

"Hi, Bel" Mammon greeted without looking up from his beverage.

"Ushishi. So, did you sent out _all_ the invitations that we spent hours writing?" Bel asked as he took a seat next to Mammon.

"Of course I did. I'm not lazy like you, Bel."

"Ushishishi. Are you mocking the Prince, Monta?"

"Don't call me by that name."

"Mama, don't be like that you two." Lussuria said as he took a seat in front of the other two. "Mammon-chan, the Ninth informed us that we will be paying the girl a visit tomorrow."

"When did he tell you that?" Mammon asked, finally looking up from his drink.

"Ushishi, when you were away." Bel answered as he put both his hands behind his head and leaned against the chair.

"I knew this day will come sooner or later." Mammon spoke seriously as he lowered his head.

"Well, it's something that we can never prevent from happening." Lussuria said, placing his chin on both his palms.

"Ushshishi~ The Prince wonder what the other peasants thought about this..."

* * *

-Kokuyou Land-

"Shishou, what have you got there?" Fran asked as he approached Mukuro who was sitting on the couch, reading a piece of paper.

"Kufufu, that Arcobaleno from that Varia of yours came and give me this." Mukuro said, handing the paper over to Fran.

"Mammon-san?" Fran asked as he took the paper.

Mukuro nodded as he stare at Fran reading the letter.

Fran looked up to face Mukuro when he finished reading.

"Me never thought that something like this will actually ever happen." Fran said in his monotone.

"Kufufu. Well, now it _is_ going to happen. You must accept the fact."

"Me can. But Me wonder if that stupid long hair Taichou can."

"Kufufufu" Mukuro just laughed before it felled complete silence in the room.

"Me is going back to Varia." Fran said, finally breaking the silence.

* * *

-Cavallone Famiglia-

"Romario, I'm going to visit the Varia." Dino informed Romario before walking towards the main door of the Cavallone Mansion.

"I'll come with you, Boss." said Romario, following behind Dino.

"No need for that, I can take care of things myself." replied Dino as he continued walking.

"But Boss, you're so *cough cough* clumsy when I'm not around. Just what can you do on your own?" Romario questioned his boss.

Dino hesitated before he finally said "Fine, you can come."

* * *

-Namimori Middle Rooftop-

All the Vongola Tenth generation guardians, except for Hibari, were assembled at the school rooftop by Reborn. Even the stupid cow Lambo.

"Uhmn" Reborn cleared his throat. "Ciaossu, minna-san." Reborn beginned. "Today I specially assembled all of you here to inform you guys something."

"Why all the guardians were assembled here but not that Hibari?" Gokudera asked.

"Hibari refused to come." the answer came from Reborn was short-and-sweet.

_That guy really HATES crowding huh? _Tsuna thought.

"Now, let's continue, shall we? Tsuna, read this." Reborn said as he handed the letter he received from Mammon to Tsuna.

"Why me?" Tsuna questioned, pointing at himself for emphasis.

"Why, you ask. Well, that's because you're the Vongola Tenth." Reborn answered with a smirk on his face. "Now hurry up and read it, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn said as he literally shoved the paper in Tsuna's face.

"UWAA-AHH!" Tsuna screamed as he nearly fell onto the floor. "What did you do that for, Reborn?"

"Shut up and read." Reborn demanded as he pointed his Leon-gun at Tsuna.

"HIEEEEE! Fine!" cold sweat fell off Tsuna's forehead as he turned towards the paper and beginned to read the content out loud so the others can hear.

_"Dear stupid peasants,_

_the Boss is going to marry a female peasant from the Fiancata Famiglia in order to "prevent further war between the two famiglias", at least that's what the old man said._

_The date has not been confirmed yet._

_We will inform you of the date when there is further information._

_P.S: The Prince hates writing this stupid invitation."_

Tsuna sweat-dropped as he finished reading.

Gokudera face-palmed.

Yamamoto just laughed his signature laugh.

Ryohei can't stop screaming "EXTREME!"

Chrome look stunned.

Lambo just stared at everyone else.

And the roof is filled with awkward silent.

"That Knife-Bastard wrote this. No doubt." said Gokudera as he twitched his eyebrow.

"Definitely" Tsuna agreed.

"Ahaha. A marriage sounds interesting." Yamamoto laughed.

"You stupid Baseball-Idiot. Are you missing out the fact that the one who is going to get married is "the Boss"? In other words, Xanxus." Gokudera asked the raven-haired athlet.

"I CANNOT IMAGINE XANXUS GETTING MARRIED TO THE EXTREME!" Ryohei shouted out loud.

"Sasagawa-senpai, please don't be so loud." Chrome said as she approached Ryohei.

"But what Onii-san said is true." said Tsuna. "Xanxus isn't really the type of person with good attitude."

"Who in the world will want to marry him?" Gokudera asked.

"Well, it's stated in the letter, isn't it?" Reborn replied, holding up the letter for everyone to see. "It's a girl from the Fiancata Famiglia. As far as I know, the Fiancata Famiglia only had one girl. The younger sister of the young boss, Meridionale."

"But why will they want a marriage so sudden?" Yamamoto saked with a questioning look on his face.

"Are you i- never mind, I know you are an idiot. It's stated in the letter here," Gokudera pointed at the letter. "that it's to 'prevent further war between the two famiglias', you Yakyuu-Baka." Gokudera answered.

"But why will they want a marriage to prevent the war?" Tsuna asked this time. "And why will they even want to prevent it in the very start? They are the strongest mafia famiglia, right?"

"Well, the Ninth is a very nice old man. I'm sure all of you know that. And he's the type of person that will prevent any war from happening if possible. He only fights when it's the only way to solve things." Reborn answered. "Now, about your another question. The answer is quite obvious, isn't it? A marriage is the best way for famiglia alliance. In other words, prevent wars between the two famiglias. If I need to explain it more clearly for that dame-brain of yours to understand, it's because when the person from each of the two famiglias gets married, their famiglias will be considered as one famiglia. That will mean that they must work together. And in order for that to happen, they must not fight one another. Instead, they must fight together in order to defeat whatever enemy they got."

"So- soka?" _But I actually understands right after you explained the first part, you don't need to explain any further though._

"So... what are we going to do now?" Chrome asked.

"Well, there really isn't anything we can do about this. We can only sit here and wait for further information from the Varia or the Ninth." Reborn answered.

" *Sigh* I hope the Varias are okay with this. They probably will do something like killing the girl is anything went wrong."

* * *

**A/N: So... as you can see here, chpt 2 is basically what happened to the other people when they heard the news. It's not properly written, I know, I know...**

**I started writing this today during Math lesson when we're originally supposed to do our work on computer. Thus, leading us to the Computer Lab. And it just happened that I finished all my work yesterday, so I ended up getting nothing to do. So I started writing this！Not able to complete it of course, and did the remainings at home.  
**

**To those people who wants to ask about Fran's appearance at the Kokuyou Land, well, it just so-happened that I totally forget to add him in in the previous chpt. So I ended up adding him here. I wonder if anyone actually noticed it... Please forgive me, those Fran fans who happened to read this.  
**

**Forgot another thing to mention in the previous chpt: Please Review !  
**


	3. Fiancata Famiglia

**A/N: Hello! I'm back. Like I said, I'll update this story very fast ( & hopefully in character ) for the sake of letting the readers have a better understanding of what is going on in the story. Another reason is that, I don't want to take so long and after I post the new chpt, you guys will be thinking things like: WTH? So long already you only wrote something like this? Ya, so that's that...**

**I'm so happy I received reviews in just one day! I also would like to thank those people who added this story into their favourite/alert story list.**

**Now, on with the story...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR.**

* * *

"Ushishishi. Froggy, you're finally back!" Bel cried as he swung his arms around Fran's neck. "Did you come here to specially visit the Prince?"

"Don't be stupid, fake-prince senpai." Fran said in his monotone. "Me came because of this." Fran held up the unfolded letter.

"Mu, that's the invitation that I sent out." Mammon said as he floated into the room.

"Ushishishi. Seems like that stupid pineapple-haired master of yours had let you see the letter already."

"Ya, and nice way to write an invitation, you stupid senpai."

"Ushishishi" Bel laughed his signature laugh as he took out his knives and threw then at Fran's frog hat. "The Prince write an invitation the way a Prince wants. And don't you dare insult the Prince, you stupid frog."

"Senpai, itai desu."

"Maa maa" Lussuria said as he came out from the kitchen, still wearing the pink apron. "Since Fran-chan is here already, why don't we fill him up with information regarding tomorrow?"

"What's going to happen tomorrow?" Fran asked, not sounding very interested in knowing the answer, just want to know it for the sake of knowing it.

"Ushishi. Can you sound more curious than that?"

"Sorry, senpai. Me don't think so."

"Tomorrow we're going to pay the Fiancata Famiglia a visit. And of course, mainly the girl." Mammon answered Fran's question, stopping the little argument between them.

"Aww~ so that's it." Fran said sarcastically. "Me can't wait to see what Boss' soon-to-be-wife looks like."

"We had already seen her before in the picture the Ninth showed us." Lussuria added.

"She looks like this." Mammon replied, creating an illusion of Meridionale.

"Fran, do take note that our lives might be changed due to this marriage." Mammon reminded Fran as the illusion disappeared.

Fran nodded before asking his second question.

"So... hows the long hair Taichou doing?"

The room was with silent until Lussuria finally answered the question.

"Squ-chan had been very quiet lately, not like his usual self. He must have been very concerned about this whole thing."

"Ya, and so are we." Bel added as he laid his head on Fran's frog hat.

"Let's just wait for tomorrow." Mammon said as he floated away. "It's not as if we could change anything by just discussing about it."

* * *

Squalo stared outside the window in his room. He had been doing this since the day the Ninth announced to them about the marriage between his boss and the sister of the Fiancata Famiglia. He should feel happy for his boss, no? But why does he feel that something's wrong? Maybe because the girl is from a famiglia that had a war with them for almost one month. Or that his life may be changed because of this. Or probably that he's just not used to having new member with them. Which one it is, Squalo's not even sure himself. But one thing for sure is that he hate this weird feeling inside him that just won't leave him alone for the past few days. Squalo is so frustrated with this feeling that he can't even concentrate on training!

Squalo finally snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in" he replied lazily, not even looking away from the window.

The door opened as Dino stepped in, Romario following behind him.

"Squalo" Dino called out the shark's name seeing that he didn't even bothered to turn around to face him.

"Oh, so it's you, Bucking Horse. What do you want?" Squalo asked, not very politely, as he finally looked away from the window that he had been staring at for the past few hours.

"I... heard the news, Squalo." Dino hesitated before finally giving his answer.

"And so?"

"Well, I... come to see how you're doing..."

"Those two things completely don't have any link, you Bucking Horse." Squalo said as he got more and more irritated.

"Well, there is." replied Dino, trying to keep calm. "_Your_ boss is getting married. Of course you'll be affected, one way or another."

"Whatever that's going to happen to me is none of your business." Squalo replied rudely as he turned back to stare outside the window.

"Haha, Squalo, don't be like that." Dino laughed as he took a seat next to Squalo. "I'm sure you're very depressed now."

"No, not at all. Why would I be?" Squalo questioned as he continued to stare outside.

"Well..." Dino thought for a while before he gave his answer. "you certainly had been pretty quiet. That's not like you."

Squalo kept quiet and pretended not to hear Dino, so the Cavallone boss take that as a sign to continue with his speech.

"And I'm sure you know this: when your boss gets married, it will change not only his life. But also you along with the rest of the Varia and even the whole famiglia. And none of us is sure if these changes will bring us advantages or disadvantages."

"So what?" Squalo asked. "It has already been decided. It's not as if we could change anything. He just have to do this for the famiglia's sake. We cannot do anything to prevent any of these from happening. " he paused. "And besides," he continued, facing Dino. "even if it _does_ change our lives and brings us disadvantages, I'll handle them. I'll somehow find one way or another to solve whatever problems there might be."

Dino smiled as Squalo finished his speech before standing up. "Well, that's good to hear, I guess. But do remember, Squalo. If you ever need any help, it's okay to ask."

"Tch, I'll never need any help from you." Squalo replied and turned to face the window. Again.

"Haha, still the proud swordsman you are huh? Well, guess that will never change." Dino laughed.

_Guess I'll just come here myself when you really need help then._

"Ya ya, whatever. Can you get out now and leave me alone?" Squalo asked impatiently.

"Haha, okay I'll leave. Bye then, Squalo." Dino waved goodbye to Squalo, who ignored it, and made his way towards the door.

* * *

The next day, the Varia arrived at the Fiancata mansion like they were told to, and was brought into the main hall by the Fiancata boss' Storm Guardian, Assalto.

"Please wait here for the others to arrive." Assalto said as he left them in the room before leaving to get the others.

The Varias made themselves comfortable in the room. Bel was sitting on a couch with Mammon in his arms. Fran sat beside Bel on the floor. Squalo sat beside Bel on the couch. Lussuria and Levi shared another couch opposite of the other one. Xanxus was sitting lazily on an armchair in front of the table with his eyes closed.

The atmosphere was extremely tensed as the guardians stared at their boss. No body dared to make any sound. They all kept quiet until they heard footsteps.

They all turned towards the door as it opened to reveal 7 people. 6 men and 1 girl.

"Ah, I see you guys had all arrived." said a man with short, black hair as they made their way towards them. "It's a pleasure to meet you all." he bowed curtly. "I'm Settentrionale, the boss of the Fiancata Famiglia, and the older brother of Meridionale."

Everyone turned to examine Settentrionale. He's neither too tall nor too short. He has fringe that touches his eyebrow and baby blue eyes. He had his left hand placed on the girl beside him.

"And this is Meridionale. I'm sure you all recognise her from the picture the Ninth boss of Vongola showed you." Settentrionale said as he introduced his younger sister to the Varias.

"Meridionale is not only my sister, but also our Cloud Guardian." Settentrionale continued. "I'm sure you all will get to know more about her after she move in to live with you."

"WAIT!" Levi shouted as he stood up. "Nobody ever told us that she'll be living with us! We're just here to visit!"

"Fufu, I see that the Ninth didn't tell you this before-hand, so I guess I'll have to explain this to you now. We're giving you some time to work on your relationship before we decide on the actual date of the marriage. I'm sure you guys had heard about _that, _right? " Settentrionale looked at each Varia member and continued seeing them all nodded their heads. "So, in order for you guys to get to know and get adapted to live with one another better, we decided to let my dear sister, Meridionale, live with you guys for a while."

"Hmmmm, that does makes sense." Lussuria said.

"Ushishi, its common sense. The octopus is just too stupid to understand it." Bel laughed.

"What did you say, Bel?"

"Now now, before you guys started fighting, why not I introduce you to my guardians first?" Settentrionale said, successfully preventing Bel from throwing knives at Levi.

"I'm sure you guys already know my Storm Guardian, Assalto." the Varias turned to face a red-haired man with messy hair in a neat way. His eyes are a lighter shade of red compared to his hair. "He's my right-hand man and is in charge of all the paper works."

"He's totally different from you, Bel-senpai." Fran whispered to Bel. "You never bother to do the paper works."

"Ushishi, that's because I'm Prince and got other peasants to do them for me." Bel whispered back.

"Now this one over here is Lacrimare." a man with light-blue hair smiled at them. He also has bangs that touches his eyebrow and collar, along with black eyes. "He's my Rain Guardian and has a calm personality."

"Maybe you should learn how to be calm too, Squalo." Mammon said softly.

"Shut up." Squalo spoke as quietly as possible.

"This one is my Sun Guardian, Chiaro." the man with orange-brown hair waved. He has long bangs that joined at the centre of his face and spiky hair. "He's an expert at Karate."

"Now that's something different from that Sun Guardian of Sawada and Lussuria." Squalo pointed out.

"That little guy over there is Baleno, my Thunder Guardian." Settentrionale said, pointing at a man who is shorter than the rest with bangs and spikes at the back of his head. "He's a strong fighter despite his appearance and prefers doing things by one self."

"He really is a lot shorter than the others." Fran whispered.

"By at least a head." Bel added.

"Now, the last guardian. Caligine, my Mist Guardian." a with light purple hair stepped in front and bowed. His hair is long and tied behind him. "He's the illusionist of the group, but can also handle hand-to-hand combat."

"Ushishishi, Mammon you should learn how to hand-to-hand combat too." Bel teased.

"Shut up, Bel."

"Now," Settentrionale started his speech again. "why don't you guys introduce yourself?"

"Uhmp" Lussuria cleared his throat as he stood up. "Allow me to do the honour. I'm Lussuria, call me Luss-nee. I'm the Varia Sun Guardian and an expert at Muay Thai. This guy sitting beside me is Leviathan, the Thunder Guardian, very loyal to our boss. The little one sitting on the floor is Fran, our new Mist Guardian, disciple of Rokudo Mukuro, the Vongola Mist Guardian, and the inheritor of our former Mist Guardian, Mammon, also the Mist Arcobaleno. The one having Mammon in his hands is Belphegor, or Bel for short. He's also known as "Prince the Ripper", a genius in fighting. Squalo, the one sitting beside Bel, our second-in-command, the Second Sword Emperor. And last but not least, our boss, Xanxus." Lussuria said as he pointed at each and every member when they were mentioned.

"Fufu, Xanxus-kun, I'll be counting on you to take care of my dear Meridionale for me." Settentrionale said as he reached out his hand to Xanxus, who ignored it. Seeing that Xanxus didn't take his hand, Settentrionale just pulled his hand back before facing the rest of the Varias. "Well, why don't we chat for a while before you guys take you leave? I'm sure we need to know more about one another in order for us to work together in the future."

The others just nodded as the Fiancata guardians approach them...

* * *

**A/N: Well, I think that's it for chpt 3... if I continue, I don't know where I'm gonna stop at! So, ..., please just look forward to the new chpt...**

**YAY ! School finally ended! From tomorrow onwards, I don't need to go to school anymore! ... until next year...  
**

**I'm thinking if I wanted to draw the Fiancata guardians, since now that I got more time... how will you guys want it?  
**

**Reviews are always welcomed!  
**


	4. Life is going to Change

**A/N: Hello! To those who didn't read my Author's Note, good for you...maybe? It's basically telling you guys that I drew the Fiancata guardians already. It's posted on my Deviantart that can be found on my profile. **

**For those who read the Author's Note can see that I deleted that already.**

**Thank you Past Story, I really appreciate that you review to almost all my chpts. And thank you for the compliment, even though I think that the work is quite poorly done...**

**By the way, if anyone is bothered to go check something like Google translate, you can go check all the names I gave the guardians, they all have a meaning. (Ya, so is the famiglia name! )**

**Okay now, move on to the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR**

* * *

Xanxus is sitting in front of his desk in his office. The visit to the Fiancata Famiglia had already ended and the Varia member had brought Meridionale along with them back to the Varia Mansion. Her room is located next to Xanxus, common for wife's room.

The visit went out smoothly, quite boring actually. They only talked about what they commonly did when they're not in battle as Squalo reminded the Varias not to tell the Fiancata Guardians anything about their battle skills as they _were_ enemy famiglias, who knows when they'll start a war again if things don't go ou well? And it sure will be safer if they don't know anything about their battle styles.

Xanxus is doing his paper work when there's a sudden knock on the door. That's something unusual. Normally, no one will be visiting Xanxus's office unless they were ordered to do so. And as far as Xanxus could remember, he didn't order anyone to come here. The only person that can come in without invitation is Squalo, being the second in command of Varia. But he usually won't bother to knock and just kick the door open. So it's not strange when Xanxus had no idea who it is.

"Come in" he answered to the knock as the door opened.

"Ciaossu" same a sweet voice as Meridionale appeared behind the door.

"What are you doing here for?" Xanxus questioned before looking back to his work.

"Fufu, it's normal for wife to visit her husband at work, am I wrong?" Meridionale questioned back with a smile on her face.

"Don't get too over yourself," Xanxus said, looking up. "we're not even married yet."

"Don't be like that, dear." Meridionale replied, the smile still on her face. "It's just a matter of time before we get married. After all, it has been decided by the two famiglias and nothing can change it."

Xanxus doesn't intend to argue with his soon-to-be-wife any longer so he just go back to his work.

"Oh my, look at the time!" Meridionale exclaimed, looking at the clock in Xanxus's office. "It's this late already. Would you like me to bring you some dinner, my dear?"

This whole "dear" thing is already driving Xanxus crazy on the inside. Who does this woman think she is? Just being the soon-to-be-wife of the strongest mafia famiglia, Vongola's strongest independent squad, Varia's boss' doesn't give her authority to call him "dear" all the time!

"There's no need for that." Xanxus said, trying to keep his cool. It's not as if he cannot just shout at this woman here and tell her to get lost and never appear in front of him again. But it's just that he still don't know her strength yet. And being the sister and guardian of the boss of the famiglia who had a war with them that cause several lost to the Vongola, she just can't be some weakling that can easily die in his hand.

"But my dear.."

"Someone else is ordered to do the job." Xanxus interfered before Meridionale could finish her sentence.

"Huh?" Meridionale looked puzzled as she stare at Xanxus, wondering what he mean by that.

Just then, the door opened as Squalo stepped in with Xanxus's dinner in one hand.

"Here's your dinner, Boss." Squalo said as he placed the meat on Xanxus's desk before exiting through the door and closing it behind him.

Meridionale looked stunned for a while before turning back to Xanxus. "Why is your dinner served by your subordinate instead of a normal maid?" she questioned.

"Whoever is to serve my dinner is none of your business." Xanxus replied as he began to eat his dinner.

_Because he's the only one who can actually serve my dinner properly. _Xanxus thought.

Meridionale just stared at Xanxus eating his dinner before she headed towards the door, finding there's nothing for her to do here...

* * *

Xanxus was glad when the woman finally left his office, even though she didn't even stayed for more than 15 minutes.

Having a wife really is not something that he could handle. Sure, he'll be needing a heir some day and let him succeed the Varia boss' seat. But this is just ... Let's just say that he's not prepared for all these. The days that the Ninth had given him to think things through is totally not a help at all. All he thought about is how ridiculous this is. Things like "love" is just not something that mafias should have. Or at least not something that he would like to have. Well, maybe except towards Squalo. Who won't like the strong swordsman that can accomplish all his orders in perfection? True, Squalo does hurt his ears with his loud voice, but all the contributions he did that made up for it.

But now, things are just different. Why would he want to marry a girl from a supposingly enemy famiglia that he only met?

No matter which way he think about it, this whole marriage is a bad idea. And like what Meridionale said, there's nothing that can change this...

* * *

The next day in the Varia Mansion is quite normal. Everyone went on their individually assigned missions, while the rest who didn't get an assigned mission stayed in the mansion.

So, it just so happened that Squalo, Bel and Fran were assigned with missions, while Mammon, Lussuria and Levi got to stay in the mansion with their boss and his soon-to-be-wife.

Mammon is sitting on the couch, counting his money as usual, and Lussuria and Levi were watching television.

"So... how does everyone think of Meridionale-chan?" Lussuria asked, trying to bring up a conversation.

"I don't like her." came Levi's answer.

"None of my business." answered Mammon.

"Oh come on, you guys. Don't be like this." Lussuria said in his gayish voice. "Meridionale-chan is going to be staying with us for- probably the rest of our life. How are we going to live together if we don't treat each other better?"

"Well, I'm still living with you guys even though I don't like you." Mammon replied.

"Aww~, Mammon-chan don't be like that. You're so mean~."

"I don't care."

"Aww~ Mammon-chan~"

"Shut up, Lussuria."

...

* * *

-Meanwhile-

"Ushishishi. This mission is far to easy for royalty."

"Rest in peace, you guys that were killed by this stupid fake Prince over here."

*Stab Stab*

"Ushishi. The Prince is neither stupid nor fake, Froggy. Don't let the Prince hear it from you again unless you want to "rest in peace" like all these stupid peasants over here."

"Senpai, itai desu. Yamete kudasai~"

"Voi. Hurry up and let's get back to the Varia Mansion already, you two."

"Ushishi, why should we? Let's just take our time and stay here."

"Me have to agree, Taichou. Me don't feel like going back and staying with that soon-to-be-wife of Boss'."

"Ushishi. See, even Froggy agrees."

"VOI! I don't care about you brats, now hurry get your fucking ass up and go!"

"Ushishi. Chill, Captain. We're just doing you a favour here by returning to the mansion later."

"Huh?"

"Well, Taichou. You probably is the person here among us that wants to go back the least. So we're purposely dragging the time so we can return as late as possible."

"Voi! Why in the world won't I want to go back?"

"Ushishi, because you feel like chopping off that woman's head whenever you see her with Boss?"

"VOI! That's not true! Besides, even if it _is_ true, so what?"

"Well, to prevent tragedy like you killing the sister of our supposingly enemy famiglia's boss and that they'll start a war again, we're specially keeping you here for safety reasons."

"VOI! You're not making sence!"

"Ushishishi. Shut up already, Captain. Just stay. It's not as if anything will happen if we return late."

*whisper* "Besides, it's also for Boss to develop "relationship" with that girl. Even though Me hate doing this."

...

* * *

-Meanwhile-

"Here's your coffee, Xanxus dear." Meridionale said politely as she placed a cup of coffee on Xanxus's desk.

"You know, it does make me feel a lot more at ease if you stop calling me "dear"." Xanxus said without looking up from his paper work.

"Fufu, but it's for "relationship working", my dear." Meridionale replied with a smile on her face.

"You can call me that all you want _after_ we got married. But for _now_, no." Xanxus said, restricting from adding "_which I wish will never happen._"

"Fufu. Well, since I'm going to call you that sooner or later, I might as well just call you that _now. _You just need some time to get use to it, _dear_." Meridionale replied, the smile on her face turned into a smirk.

Xanxus ignored her and continued with his work.

_Shouldn't those trashes be back by now? _Xanxus thought. _How long do they need to just take care of some useless scums?_

"Fufu, worried about your subordinates?" Meridionale questioned.

"Does it have anything to do with you?" Xanxus questioned back.

"Fufu, I'll take that as a "yes" then."

"Don't decide things on your own."

"Fufu. Xanxus dear, now you're making me confirm my guess even more you know?"

"Shut up."

"Fufu, okay then." Meridionale said as she took her leave towards the door, signaling the end of their conversation.

Xanxus stared at Meridionale's figure as she closed the door before resting his head on his hand.

_You useless Shark Trash, what in the world is taking you so long to come back? You're making things a lot more complicated than they originally are you know?_

* * *

"Squ-chan, Bel-chan, Fran-chan! What took you so long to come back? We were so worried!" Lussuria cried as Squalo, Bel and Fran stepped into the Varia Mansion.

"Only you were worried and actually _cared_ about them, Lussuria." Mammon added. "I'm actually quite _glad_ that they took their time at the mission so that I can have some peaceful time without any shouting or stabbing."

"Ushishi. Mammon are you complaining about the Prince?" Bel asked as he took Mammon in his arms and started pinching his face.

"Bel-senpai, it's not strange for people to complain about you, you know?" Fran questioned. "Me hate your stabbing too."

*Stab Stab*

"Ushishishi. Shut up Froggy, and just let the Prince has his target practise."

"Senpai, itai desu. Shouldn't a prince care for his peasants?"

"Ushishi, you're not the Prince's peasant, Froggy. You're the Prince's _pet_!"

"Then doesn't that give you more reasons to stop stabbing Me?"

"Ushishi. Shut up, Froggy."

*Stab Stab*

"Mou~ Bel-chan, stop bullying Fran-chan." Lussuria said as he stopped Bel's stabbing. "You guys still haven't explained what took you so long to come back."

"These two brats forced me to stay with them there for "safety reasons"." Squalo explained.

"What "safety reasons"?" Mammon asked.

"Like preventing that Idiot Taichou from getting jealous and chopping off Boss' soon-to-be-wife's head." Fran answered as he pulled out the knives Bel threw onto his hat and bending them before throwing them onto the floor.

"Ushishishi. Don't throw away the Prince's knives, you Frog!"

"OHHH! Is that true, Squ-chan?"

"VOI! Don't talk nonsense, Fran! And Lussuria, of course NO!"

"Aww~ Squ-chan, don't be embarrassed. It's okay to tell Luss-nee how you feel."

"VOI! I told you already I'M NOT JEALOUS!"

"Taichou, you're sounding like you really are now."

"VOI! SHUT UP, FRAN!"

And that's how the Varias ended up having chaos the rest of the day with shoutings, cursing, knives, illusions, sword and a lot of stuff flying around the room.

* * *

**A/N: Phew, *whip sweat* finally finished this chpt. The ending kind of suck but I cannot think of any better ways to take care of it.**

**I'm having a hard time dragging this whole "relationship working" things before I actually started on the _real_ things that's gonna happen. Ya, so that means there's more to come!  
**

**The actual story haven't actually started yet, and probably need a lot of time-dragging before it starts. So... please be patient and enjoy the story as it goes!  
**

**Oh, before I forget, let's say this out loud together!  
**

**Se no... HAPPY BIRTHDAY BYAKURAN SAMA!  
**

**Like always: Please Review.  
**


	5. The Vongola is here!

**A/N: Ciaossu! Sorry for the delay, I was plotting this chpt… **

**There's nothing much for me to say, so we'll just start the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, I own the OCs.**

* * *

-In the plane from Japan to Italy-

"Nee, Reborn. Why are we heading to Italy?" Tsuna questioned the little infant sitting beside him.

"Well, isn't that obvious, Dame Tsuna." Reborn replied after sipping his espresso. "We're going to go check on the Varias."

"That's what I'm asking!" Tsuna said, a little louder this time. "Why are we checking on that Varia that would make us freak out?"

"Shut up, Dame Tsuna. You're too loud." Reborn said as he pointed his Leon-gun at Tsuna.

"HIIIIIEEEE!"

"I said shut up, didn't I?" Reborn questioned as he shot the wall of the plane beside Tsuna.

Tsuna stared at the wall with smoke coming out from a small hole.

_I'm so gad the Vongola provided us with a private plane instead of letting us use the public plane. _Tsuna thought. _Who knows what kind of commotion we'll create?_

"Don't forget, Tsuna." Reborn said as he blew the smoke coming from his Leon-gun. "Xanxus and the Varia are still under the Vongola, that makes them your famiglia members. And it's a boss' job to check on them when things happened."

"I said I'm not going to be the Boss, right?" Tsuna questioned. "Besides, the current boss of Vongola is the Ninth, right? Why must I go check on them, especially since Xanxus is going to kill me on seeing me there, when the Ninth can do it?"

"The Ninth is a very busy man with other famiglia issues to take care. As the next boss of Vongola, it's your job to help him. Now shut up." Reborn demanded after answering Tsuna's question.

"Haha. Cheer up, Tsuna." Yamamoto laughed from his seat behind Tsuna. "This is the first time we get to visit the Varias."

"Shut up, Baseball Idiot." Gokudera groaned in his seat beside Yamamoto. "Who in the world, that is in the right mind, will be happy to see those blood-thirsty, crazy-minded assassins?"

"Haha, I do." Yamamoto answered. "I can't wait to see Squalo."

"Tch, that's because you're an idiot that can't see how much urge he has in chopping off your head when you laughed like a brainless-idiot."

"Haha. Don't say that, Gokudera. Squalo is actually very nice, he helped me train in the future."

_Ya, after beating the shit out of you_. Tsuna thought.

"Tch. But Reborn-san, why are we _all_ here?" Gokudera asked, turning to look around the plane.

Ryohei was sitting opposite of them, facing the window, shouting his usual "EXTREME!". Chrome was sitting beside him with an asleep Lambo in her lap. Even Hibari and Mukuro were here.

"Hn. It's the Guardians' duty to follow their boss no matter where he goes." Reborn answered as he took another sip of his espresso.

"Haha. I never thought that even Hibari would come." Yamamoto laughed again.

"Either Reborn-san asked him to or agreed on a fight with him or he just wanted to fight Xanxus." Gokudera answered.

"With those two demons here, I actually wonder if we can get to Italy safely…" Tsuna whispered to himself. "But at least the noisy one is asleep. Save us some problem." Tsuna said again as he turned to look at Lambo, who is sleeping soundly in Chrome's lap.

_*Sigh* I hope this trip turns out smoothly._

* * *

-6 hours later-

"Muahahaha! Lambo-san is active!" Lambo screamed as he got down from Chrome's lap and headed towards Tsuna. "Tsuna, play with Lambo-san!"

"Ah, Lambo. Don't be so loud." Tsuna whispered softly as he looked around the plane. His guardians were all sleeping soundly by now.

"Tsuna, play with Lambo-san. Play. Play. Play!"

"Lambo, please ke-"

"You herbivores are too loud." Tsuna turned his head towards a death-glaring Hibari with his tonfa in one hand. "Quiet down or I'll bite you to death."

"HIE! Yes, Hibari-san!"

And that's how Tsuna ended up staying in a soundproof room with Lambo for the next few hours until they reach their destination...

* * *

"WOW! I never thought that the Varia Castle is this... creepy." Tsuna exclaimed as they reached the outside of Varia Mansion.

"They're one hell of creepy people. It's not strange for them to live in creepy place." Gokudera answered.

"Haha. It's like we're in a scary movie." Yamamoto added.

"This place is so big to the EXTREME!" Ryohei shouted.

"Let's go in." Reborn said as he lead them inside.

They strolled through the Varia Mansion with a lot of exclaims coming from Tsuna, Yamamoto and Ryohei. They passed by a few of low-ranked Varia members who shot them death glares that sent chills down Tsuna's spines. They finally managed to find someone they know until they reached the 2nd floor.

"Ciaossu, little Vongola." Lussuria greeted.

"Ciaossu, Lussuria." Reborn greeted back.

"What brings you here?"

"Well... we're..." Tsuna started explaining but was interfered by Reborn. "We're here to check on Xanxus's wife."

"OH! You mean Meridionale-chan? She's very beautiful and sweet!" Lussuria exclaimed.

"Ya. Erm... do you perhaps know where we could find her?" Tsuna asked politely.

"Oh, of course. She's in the Boss' office, just like she did everyday." Lussuria answered.

"Oh, soka. Thank you." Tsuna thanked the Varia Sun Guardian before leaving with his guardians beside him.

* * *

A knock was heard behind the door to Xanxus's office before Xanxus answered to it.

"Come in"

The door opened as 7 middle schoolers and 2 infants entered the room.

"Ciaossu, Xanxus." Reborn greeted.

"What are you scums doing here?" Xanxus questioned with a death glare.

"HIE!" Tsuna screamed before turning silent.

"We're here to check on you and your wife." Reborn answered, seeing that Tsuna's not going to answer that, while glaring at the girl standing beside Xanxus's desk.

"Fufu. Don't say that, Arcobaleno." Meridionale smiled. "We're still not married yet."

"If you scums want to talk with her, go outside and talk all you want without interfering me." Xanxus said as he turned back to his work.

"Fine then. Let's go outside, Meridionale." Reborn said as he walked outside with the rest of the Vongola Guardians following behind him.

* * *

"Please have some tea." Meridionale said as she placed a tray full of tea-filled cups onto a table.

"Th- Thanks, Meridionale." Tsuna thanked her as he took one cup from the tray.

"So, how do you find living with the Varias?" Reborn asked as he sip the tea he just took.

"Well, they sure are one hell of crazy people..." Meridionale began speaking.

"See, just like I said." Gokudera whispered to Tsuna, who is sitting beside him.

"But I'm sure I'll be able to get used to it sooner or later." Meridionale smiled as she finished her sentence.

"I wonder how in the world can someone ever get used to the _Varias'_ craziness." Tsuna whispered back.

"Good to hear that." Reborn said as he cup down onto the table. "But it seems like your husband still didn't quite acknowledge you yet."

"Oh, please, Arcobaleno. I said that we're still not married yet, haven't I?" Meridionale said as she waved her hand in a girly manner. "Besides, I already knew when I was informed of the marriage that he doesn't really had a good attitude and I'm already prepared well enough for it."

"Well, that's another good thing to hear." Reborn said. "I hope you won't mind if we stay for a little longer."

"But Reborn, why do we need to stay longer?" Tsuna whispered to Reborn.

"No, not at all." Meridionale replied with a smile. "Feel free to stay however long you wish."

* * *

"So, how do you all think about Xanxus's wife?" Reborn asked as soon as they were outside the Varia Mansion.

"I couldn't care less about her and I'll bite you to death, you infant, for asking me to come here for such a reason." Hibari said as he pulled out his tonfas and get into a ready-to-battle position.

"Maa maa, Hibari. Don't fight." Yamamoto said as he tried to calm the Cloud Guardian down. "I think she's just as Lussuria said, beautiful and sweet."

"I hate her. She's annoying and pisses me off." Gokudera pointed out his opinion.

"Kufufu. I really shouldn't care about her, who is related to the mafia." Mukuro added.

"I think she's nice to the EXTREME!" Ryohei shouted.

"I think she's very gentle and polite." Chrome stated.

"Lambo-san thinks she's like Mama." Lambo added in his own opinion.

"Tsuna, how about you?" Reborn asked as he turned to face his dame student.

"Well..." Tsuna began. "how should I put it?"

By now, all the Vongola Guardians had already turned to face their boss, waiting for his answer.

"I think she's nice and sweet, but I feel that that's not her true self, which is more... creepy." Tsuna finally answered, restricting himself from adding "I feel that she's like Mukuro. Sweet on the outside, evil on the inside." and turned to stare at Mukuro, remembering when he first saw him at the Kokuyou Land.

"Kufufu. What are you staring at, Sawada Tsunayoshi?" Mukuro laughed his signature laugh before asking.

"HIE! No-nothing at all!" Tsuna replied after screaming.

"But, what makes you feel that way, Tsuna?" Yamamoto asked.

"Well... I'm not so sure myself either. But she just give me the feeling."

"What kind of feeling, Jyuudaime?" Gokudera asked this time.

"Ahhhhhhh... the kind of feeling that makes me shiver whenever I hear her voice?" Tsuna answered, glancing at Mukuro at the corner of his eyes without turning his head to prevent anyone from noticing.

"In short, something like Mukuro. Right, Tsuna?" Reborn asked his student with a smirk on his face.

"HIIIIEEEE! Re- Reborn, you..." Tsuna was about to ask how in the world did his baby-tutour knows about what he was thinking until he suddenly remembered.

_Oh, that's right. This guy said before that he can read minds._

"Kufufu. Sawada Tsunayoshi, is that really what you're thinking?" Mukuro smirked at Tsuna too as he took out his trident.

"HIIIIIEEEE! Ano-ano-sono..."

"You damn Pineapple Bastard! Don't you dare hurt the Tenth!" Gokudera shouted at Mukuro as he stepped protectively in front of his boss and took out his dynamites.

"Mama. Gokudera, calm down." Yamamoto stepped beside the angry Storm Guardian and attempted to calm him down.

"Shut up, you Baseball Idiot. No one is dared to threaten the Tenth!" the Silverette shouted at the Rain Guardian.

"Kufufu. Gokudera Hayato, I'm not intending to fight you here." Mukuro said as indigo mist appeared around him. "Since I've come here like the Arcobaleno asked me to, I guess I should take my leave now." he finished as he evaporated into the illusioned mist he created.

"Hm. Since my job here is done, I'll be heading to the hotel first." Hibari said as he left the group too.

The group stared at Hibari's back as he left beforn turning back to face Tsuna.

"But Tsuna, are you sure?" Yamamoto asked. "Mukuro used to be our enemy, but Meridionale, she's... she couldn't possibly turned out to be our enemy as well, right?"

"You Yakyuu Baka! Are you not trusting Jyuudaime's Hyper Intuition?" Gokudera questioned the baseball player.

"Of course not. I'm just..."

"You just don't hope that Meridionale will ended up fighting against us." Tsuna interrupted Yamamoto's sentence before he could finish. "Ya, I don't hope so too. But... I'm not sure. The Fiancata Famiglia used to be our enemy, maybe that's why I got the feeling. Just maybe..."

* * *

**A/N: This chpt is so hard to think...**

**I only plotted the actual story, not the relationship-working thingys, so... I'm having a hard time thinking about how to work on relationships.**

**Hello? It's not as if I did it before...  
**

**To tell you the truth, apart of this plot of this chpt comes from my sister, who suggested me to write "how the others think about this."  
**

**So... I was thinking if anyone of you would like to suggest something for me to write as well...  
**

**If you got ideas, state it in the reviews. If you don't... you can just ignore this...  
**

**And so: Please Review!  
**


	6. Thoughts

**A/N: Hi minna! *waves***

**Ya, I know. I took a while to update this because it's so hard to think! I do appreciate reviews and suggestions on what to do with this whole dragging thing...**

**Anyway, thanks again, Past Story, for suggesting. I hope I did a good job on this...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, if I do, I'll do a lot worse job than Amano ( sorry, no offence... )**

* * *

Xanxus was doing his paper work for the next few hours after Meridionale left with the Vongola Guardians.

It's quiet in the room. Very quiet. A little... _too_ quiet.

Usually, no one will ever make any noise when they're around Xanxus's office. Unless they want get shoot to death by the bullet of the X-guns. So that leaves Squalo, who is in charge of reporting the missions, to be the only one that can actually... make 'noise' in his office. Sometimes it's really noise. With Xanxus being mad at either Squalo or random things and started throwing wine glasses at Squalo, causing the Second-in-command of Varia to shout his signature "VOIIIIIIIII!" at the top of his lungs. And sometimes, fight occurs. With the office ended up being badly damaged, and a moody Mammon who is in charge of the bills. Other times there are insults exchanged. And some hair-pulling and wine glass-throwing for Xanxus's case.

But now, ever since there's a new Cloud in Varia, one that cannot even be considered as a Guardian to the leader, things changed.

Sure, Squalo still came to report on the missions. But he never stayed as long as he did before. There's still throwing of wine glasses, but now, Squalo never made an attempt to fight back. Not in the room with the presence of a certain 'outsider'. Not wanting to stay any longer in the same room as her. Not wanting to show the basic everyday routine, which the whole Varia knew, to her.

With Squalo's presence in the room decreasing, the time spent _alone_ with Meridionale increased.

She always bother him with random questions that involved the Vongola Famiglia. Like about his boss, his supposed-to-be father, his Guardians... and lots of other things that Xanxus don't bother to remember.

She talked a lot. Like Squalo. But she spoke softly, while Squalo shouts. But still, she's annoying, like that piece of trash shark.

Now the other source of noise is gone from the room, there's only silence remained.

It's not that Xanxus couldn't stand the silence in the room. Hey, _he_'s the one that asked, or _demanded_, for it every time his inferiors made noise in the room. It's just that it's _way_ too quiet. He can't even hear anything from outside the room.

_Where did all the trashes go?_ Xanxus thought to himself. _Oh, that's right. Lussuria went out shopping. Levi went on mission. Bel, Fran and Squalo went on another mission. __Mammon don't usually make noise anyway_  


Xanxus boredly tapped his fingers on his desk rhythmically. Wondering which is worse: having the nagy Fiancata Cloud around or having dead silence in the room.

It's really foreign to Xanxus. Especially these days. With Squalo not by his side like how he used to. And the other Varias took their time during mission just because they don't want to come back and being in the same place with the young Fiancata. And having the one responsible to all these stay by his side in Squalo's place.

Now that he thinks about it, he doesn't even know how long this will last. No one ever told him when the wedding will be. Even if anyone_ did_ told him, he still has to go along with her for who knows how long.

He really missed the times when Squalo was by his side.

The truth is, he actually_ loves_ having Squalo by his side.

Unlike all the others, the shark seemed to always be at his side when problems arises. When he's in a bad mood, which is like forever, all the others leave to take shelter, but only he stayed to take all the shit that his boss gave.

Xanxus really don't understand his Rain Guardian. He's his Second-in-command. He's not a stupid useless trash like Levi who only stayed because he's too stupid to notice his anger. Why did he choose to stay and get abused by his boss' wine glass-throwing and ended up needing to take an extra shower when he could leave and save some shower time?

Actually, a lot about his shark doesn't make sense to Xanxus.

Like why did he vowed to follow him just because of his _anger_? Sure, he also follows him because of his strength, but it's more of the first option. Which trash is stupid enough to vow for something so strange like that? And what is more ridiculous is that he vowed to never cut his hair until his ungrateful boss becomes the official leader of Vongola. Another thing that no trash in the right mind will do.

And during the Cradle Affair... what an unpleasant memory. He _did_ heard the conversation between his boss and the Ninth. But he still choose to continue following him on knowing that he could _never_ be the Vongola Boss. And he didn't even want to take the seat to being the boss of Varia when his boss is frozen for... who knows how long.

What even more surprised Xanxus is that he still kept his hair long after eight years.

When he heard that his supposingly-dead shark had known that he cannot be the boss of Vongola this whole time during the Ring Conflict, he really felt shocked. And confused.

When he first heard that Squalo is going to make that vow, he thought it was just a stupid joke that the stupid trash come up with. So it really surprised him when Squalo still chose to keep it long and still followed him when he knew about all the truth.

He don't understand why didn't his shark just kill him when he finally got out from the freezing ice after eight years. Especially when it's his weakest time of all. Someone of Squalo's strength sure has the ability to kill him and get the Varia Boss' seat, right? After all, he's the one that killed Tyr, the previous Varia Boss. So why didn't he kill him like the way he killed Tyr?

Xanxus knew that Squalo is with him when they attacked the Ninth. But he never thought that he's still conscious during their conversation. And since he still acted like nothing happened after he was released, he just thought that the shark didn't hear him.

Probably no one ever expected Squalo to actually know what happened since the way he act didn't change at all.

So, why?

Why didn't he do all those things that can gain him strength?

Why didn't he just kill him?

Why did he chose to continue following him?

Why?

Xanxus's wasn't so sure of the answer himself. And there's no way he's going to ask Squalo himself. And he doubt the proud shark will answer him properly even if he _did_ ask anyway.

But somewhere deep, deep, inside him, he actually wished someday the shark will come and tell him the answer himself.

But that probably will never happen.

"I'm back, dear." a voice pulled Xanxus back from his train of thoughts.

Without looking up, Xanxus can know who the voice belongs to.

"Do you miss me?" Meridionale asked.

"No."

"Aww, you're so cold. You should treat your wife better, you know?"

"Shut up. You're not my wife."

"Well, I'm _going to_ be."

"That doesn't mean that you are _now_."

"Fufu. Whatever you say, my dear."

Xanxus rested his cheek on his palm and closed his eyes.

_Okay, the dead silence wins._

"By the way, dear." Meridionale beginned, "Shouldn't it be time that you assign _me_ on a mission?"

Seeing Xanxus opened his eyes to give her his attention, Meridionale continued her speech. "After we got married, I'll officially be part of the Varia. And that will mean carry out missions assigned to me. So, shouldn't you be starting to assign me some so that I could get used to it by the time we got married?"

Xanxus stared at his fiancee for a while, thinking about her request.

True, she does need to be assigned with missions. She's not going to just join the Varia without contributions. Besides, none of the Varia members have ever seen her fight before. This is an important chance to see how her combat ability is.

"Fine." Xanxus finally answered. "You'll be assigned to tomorrow's mission."

"Fufu. Thank you, my dear." Meridionale thanked as she walked behind Xanxus and attempted to give him a hug.

"Don't even think about it." Xanxus groaned as he push Meridionale's arms away.

*Sigh* "You should act more friendly and socializing, you know." Meridionale said as she shook her head in disagreement.

"How I act is none of your business." Xanxus groaned again. "And if you got nothing else better to do here, then get out of my office."

"Fufu. Fine then, my dear. Whatever you say." Meridionale said as she turned and made her way towards the door.

Xanxus closed his eyes again as he continued with his thoughts.

This is pretty risky. When they get to know her strength, she'll also be able to know theirs at the same time. And it'll just ruin Squalo's effort in preventing that from happening when they first met.

But this can't really be prevented forever. They'll get to see one anothers' strength and techniques sooner or later.

Besides, who knows? Maybe there's a chance of her being killed by the enemy. Or if she turned out to not have enough strength, he could just order the Varias to kill her himself. Sure, that possibility isn't high since her family killed quite a number of people from Vongola.

Anyway, since she had already been assigned on tomorrow's mission. There's no other way other than to let her go. They'll see the result after the mission.

* * *

**A/N: This took me some time to write, and think.**

**I had no idea what to write to the point that I have to go get some inspirations ( or just normal brain-cells-relaxing ) from other XS fics.  
**

**And I turned out to have more Alerted Stories and Favourited Stories! YAY!  
**

**About this, I'm sorry to people who might think that this sucks. But I'm really trying my best to do it.  
**

**To those who like it, thank you!  
**

**As always, reviews are always welcomed!  
**


	7. Mission 1: Is she Qualified?

**A/N: Hello! Sorry for the wait!**

**Thanks, Midori the XS fan for noticing that the previous chpt is a lot shorter. ( I think... -_- ) 200 words or so to be precise.  
**

**Like I said before, I'm not very good with writing. I just thought of all the plots, but not in words, and decided to share it with all the other XS fans!  
**

**For this chpt, there will be fighting involved, I'll try my best to write it... Just to take note, in this story, the people will be using Box Weapons.  
**

**So... without further ado, let's begin!  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR!  
**

* * *

The next day, all the Varia Guardians, along with Meridionale, were heading to their destination somewhere in the forest.

The Guardians were ordered by their boss to bring the Fiancata Cloud along with them on this mission, in order to check on her combat ability. At the same time, eliminate her if she don't have enough of the potential.

They were also being told to not to use their full power on this mission. Just in case the Cloud will inform her own famiglia about it later. This is just for safety purpose.

After jumping from tree to tree in the woods, they finally reached their destination. A mansion located in the middle of the forest.

"Ushishi. Here we are." Bel laughed his signature laugh as he stopped at one of the tree branches.

"Now what do we do, Squalo?" Mammon asked as he floated beside Squalo with the help of the yellow viper above his head.

"This mansion has three levels." Squalo began. "Each level has different ranking soldiers. With the strongest ones above and the weakest ones below. The easiest way is that we separate into pairs. Each pair will take on one level."

"So, do we get to choose?" Fran asked in his monotone voice.

"Whatever, just make sure you have the potential to beat whichever ranking soldiers you're against." Squalo answered.

"Ushishi. Then the Prince will take Froggy!" Bel announced as he wrapped his arms around his kouhai's shoulder.

"No way, Senpai. Me rather go with Mammon than you." Fran complained but Bel ignored him.

"Ushishi, we'll take on the 3rd floor then." Bel made his choice.

"Voi! No way, I'm taking the 3rd floor!" Squalo shouted at the Prince.

"I'll be going with you then, Squalo." said Mammon. "Since I don't want to be in the same group as either Luss or Levi."

"Mou~ Mammon-chan, why not?" Lussuria asked.

"Because I already said that I don't like you, didn't I?" Mammon questioned back.

"Voi! Lussuria, you'll just have to take the 1st floor along with Levi then." Squalo announced to the pouting Sun Guardian.

"Then does that mean Me have to take on the 2nd floor with this idiotic Senpai here then?" Fran asked.

"Ushishishi. Bingo, Froggy!" Bel answered.

"What about me?"

Everyone turned their heads towards the owner of the voice. Sure enough, it belongs to the Fiancata Cloud.

"Make your choice." Squalo said reluctantly.

"Well... what are the rankings for each level, Squalo?" Meridionale asked.

"The ones at the 3rd floor, in other words, the ones that me and Mammon are going to take down, are the strongest A-classes. The ones that Bel and Fran are attacking are the B-classes on the 2nd floor. Lussuria and Levi are against the weakest C-classes on the 1st floor." Squalo answered her question by listing down the different ranking of different level.

"Fufu. Then I guess I'll be tagging along with you then, Squalo." Meridionale made her choice.

"Whatever." Squalo said as he lighted his Rain-class ring and punch the blue flame into his Box Weapon. Meridionale stared as Alo made its way out of its box and began to swim around its owner.

"Squalo Grand Pioggia. As expected of the Varia Strategy Captain." Meridionale said in amazement.

"Sure sure, whatever. Bel, Fran, hop on." Squalo called out as he stepped onto his Box Animal's back. "Oh, and you too." Squalo said as he turned back to look at Meridionale. "Unless you can make your own way to the 3rd floor without using the stairs."

"Well..." Meridionale dragged that one word and stared innocently away from Squalo before finally giving her answer. "I can."

She lighted the Fiancata Cloud Ring on her right middle finger. Everyone stared as she took out her Box and punched the purple flame into it. The Box opened before letting out a cloud of purple flame that landed on her left hand. The cloud of flame dispersed as soon as it made contact with her skin, revealing a black crow.

"Corvo di Nuvola." Meridionale explained. "Crow of Cloud. This is _my_ Box Weapon."

Squalo stared at the Cloud-classed crow for a good few seconds before turning back to its owner. "Suit yourself."

Bel and Fran made their way onto Alo's back as it swim towards the mansion, with Meridionale flying beside them with the help of her Box Animal and Mammon with the help of Phantasma. Lussuria and Levi also made their way towards the door.

Bel soon threw his knives at the window of the 2nd floor, shattering them into pieces of broken glass on the floor.

"Ushishi. The Prince and his Froggy will be taking their leave here then." Bel said as he jumped through the broken window. "Don't make yourself dead on your first mission, Boss' fiancee."

"Fufu. Thanks for the warning, Bel." Meridionale replied the Prince with a smile on her face.

"Be sure to protect her if needed, Captain." Fran said after landing beside Bel. "Since there's _no way_ that Mammon-san is going to do that."

"Well, why should I do it when I'm not going to get paid?" Mammon questioned.

"Oh Mammon, don't be like that. And Fran, I assure you that it won't be necessary." Meridionale said as she turned to face the young Varia Mist.

"It better be that way. I don't want to waste time protecting woman who cannot defend themselves." Squalo groaned as he headed towards the 3rd floor.

"Don't worry. It won't happen." Meridionale said as she rushed off after Squalo and Mammon.

Mammon reached the 3rd floor the earliest, so he created his illusionary tentacles under his black Varia cloak and broke the windows.

The soldiers charged towards him on hearing the sound of the broken window, with their weapons in their hands. But they're no match for Mammon. He easily used his tentacles to sweep away their weapons and created waves of water, washing the soldiers away.

"Nice work, Mammon." Squalo said as he jumped off Alo's back. "But each level has around one hundred soldiers. So it means that there's more to come."

"Then let's hurry up and finish this mission then." Meridionale said as she landed beside Squalo.

The three of them made their way towards the nearest rooms. They don't even need to bother about charging in because the soldiers inside had already came out themselves, armed.

"Fufu. Allow me." Meridionale smiled as she opened her Box again, releasing more Cloud Crows that charged towards the enemies, tearing them apart.

"Not bad." Mammon said as he watched the soldiers falling onto the ground.

"Now that saved a lot of time." Squalo commented.

"Fufu. Why, thank you." Meridionale said as the crows made their way back into the Box.

"Let's continue then." Mammon said as he floated off.

The three of them walked around the 3rd floor. It's big, but nothing near the Varia's or the Vongola's. They passed by plenty of rooms, but no one charged out at them. So they can only check each and every room on their own. But sadly, there's nobody in any of them.

"Now that's strange, I don't think we've even taken down half of them. Where are all the soldiers?" Mammon asked.

"I'm not very sure. They might be hiding som-" Meridionale wasn't able to finish her sentence as the door beside her burst open with an axe-holding soldier charging towards her.

Meridionale didn't even have enough time to blink before the man got sliced through the chest before falling onto the ground, dropping his axe.

The Cloud tuned to her left, just in time to see blood dripping down Squalo's sword.

"Voi! Be aware of the things happening around you!" Squalo shouted.

Meridionale didn't reply him. Instead, she took out her Box and punched her flamed-ring into it, releasing a lance out. Meridionale took the lance and charged towards Squalo.

"Voi" Squalo didn't have enough time to shout at the Cloud before she jumped behind him and sliced off the head of an enemy that appeared to be going to attack the shark.

"Now, we're even." the Cloud said as she turned to face the Rain.

"Tch" that's the only thing that Squalo said before heading off after Mammon.

The rest of the mission passed by with silence. The only noise they heard was the screaming of their dying enemies.

"Tch. Looks like we're finally done, huh?" Squalo said as he stared at the broken window which they came in from.

"It appears so. We've already made one round around the whole floor." commented Mammon.

"Fufu. Does this means we can leave now?" Meridionale asked.

"We'll go see how the others are doing." Squalo said as he made his way down the stairs to the 2nd floor, where Bel and Fran supposed to be.

They walked around the 2nd floor, passing by a lot of bloody corpse on the ground, with knives in their body. They finally saw Bel stabbing Fran with his knives in front of a room.

"Bel-senpai. Itai desu." Fran complained with his monotone voice.

"Ushishishi. Shut up, Froggy." Bel laughed as he continued throwing knives at the Mist. "That's what you get for insulting the Prince."

"Me only said that you shouldn't made a bloody mess out of your enemies and made their blood stain on you, Senpai." Fran said.

"Ushishi. And what else did the Froggy said?" Bel questioned.

"Me said that you're so dirty with blood, Senpai." Fran answered, only getting more knives stabbed at his frog hat.

"Ushishi. The Prince is _not_ dirty!" the Storm shouted, throwing more knives at his kouhai.

"Well, apparently, you are." Fran stated.

"VOI! Stop it, you brats!" the two turned their heads to saw the three people approaching them.

"Oh, Squalo-taichou, you're just in time." Fran said. "Senpai is bullying me."

"Ushishi"

*Stab Stab*

"See." Fran said, pointing at the knives on his hat for emphasize.

"VOI! Bel, stop that!" Squalo shouted at the Prince. "And if you're all done with you're part of the mission, let's go to the 1st floor."

"Hai hai, Taichou." Fran said as he followed behind Squalo, not forgetting to pull out the knives on his hat and throwing them on the floor, which only earned him a smack on the head from Bel.

It's a lot easier to find Lussuria and Levi than Bel and Fran. They were just standing beside the door, with a lot of corpse on the ground.

"Oh! You guys finally came!" Lussuria screamed.

"You're late." Levi said, earning a knife in the face from Bel.

"Shut up, Octopus."

"Now can we leave, Squalo?" Meridionale asked.

"Fine." Squalo gave his short answer as he walked towards the door, with the rest of the Varia following behind him.

"Fufu" Meridionale laughed as she stared at the shark's back.

_Superbi Squalo. You're very interesting. I know we'll be a lot closer sooner or later._

* * *

**A/N: ****I guess that will be it for chpt 7. Please don't be disappointed, I mentioned that they're not going to show their full strength, right? So, don't ever expect my OC to be so weak. Do take note that her famiglia had killed a lot of Vongola members.**_  
_

**I hope this chpt is longer than the previous one for you guys who are reading this.  
**

**Please Review!  
**


	8. The Boss needs his time with his Shark

**A/N: WOW! I didn't expect there to be reviews within one night! ( again )**

**I'm glad that some people enjoy my story, and thanks to people who added this story into their Story Alert list. *bows***

**To those who were eager to read this chpt, let's continue...  
**

**Take note: I think the part of the plot that I planned should start from here...  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR and apparently never will!  
**

* * *

Squalo was making his way towards his boss' office, about to report to him about the mission they had earlier.

"VOI!" he shouted as he turned around. "Why the fuck are you following me?"

"Fufu. I'm not." the Cloud laughed. "I was just on my way to the same place as you."

"Tch, whatever." the shark continued walking and ignored the Cloud.

"VOI! Boss!" Squalo shouted as he slammed the door to Xanxus's office against the wall. "We're back!"

"How's the mission?" Xanxus asked with his eyes closed. Not like he really needs to know, seeing his Rain Guardian and his fiancee got back in one piece without any cuts or injuries.

"Well," Meridionale answered. "It went out very smoothly. And very easy."

"I see."

"Here's the report." Squalo said as he placed a piece of paper on the boss' desk. "I'm leaving." the shark announced as he turned around and headed towards the door.

"Who gave you permission to leave?" Xanxus asked, opening his eyes.

He just cannot stand Squalo leaving every time, leaving him to be alone with the Fiancata Cloud anymore.

He _needs_ Squalo to stay by his side!

"I don't need your permission to leave." Squalo answered, not even bothering to turn around and face his boss.

"I _order_ you to stay!" Xanxus roared, causing the swordsman to flinch before stopping on his track.

"Voi, fine!" Squalo shouted as he turned around completely to face his boss. "What do you want?"

"Hey, you." Xanxus said, eyeing the Cloud beside his desk.

"Yes, my dear?" Meridionale asked with a smile.

"Out, NOW!" Xanxus growled under his breath.

"Fufu. Yes, my dear." Meridionale said. "But would you mind telling me _why_?"

"I need some private talk with my right-hand-man." Xanxus answered, eyeing at the shark. "Is _that_ a problem to you?"

"Fufu. No, not at all. My dear." Meridionale replied before heading towards the door.

Squalo stared as she closed the door with a thud as she left before turning back to Xanxus.

"So..." Squalo started. "What do you want?"

"Hn" Xanxus turned around to face the large window behind his desk but didn't answer the shark's question.

"Well...?" Squalo asked again, seeing his boss totally ignored his question.

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"Just _why_ did you _always_ left me behind to deal with that annoying woman _myself_?" Xanxus questioned, still back-facing the shark.

Squalo arched an eyebrow at the question. Now that's something that caught the shark off guard. He certainly didn't expect his boss to ask_ that_ out of all the things to ask. But he still didn't hesitate to tell the truth. "Because she's _your_ fiancee. The Ninth said that you're suppose to have some relationship-bonding with her. And being the total ass you are, you certainly need some private time _alone_ with her in order to do that."

"Voi, and I don't like her. So let it be." the shark added just in time before Xanxus turned around from his staring outside the window to face the shark.

Squalo resisted himself to flinch again as Xanxus stood up from his seat and approached him, sending him a death glare as if _he_'s the one responsible for all this.

"Then," Xanxus stopped right in front of the shark as he began to speak again. "why the hell did you chose to drag your time during missions? And even if you _did_ finish them, you chose to stay there, taking your own sweet time and refusing to come back?"

Squalo gulped as he felt his boss' face coming closer and closer towards his own. He stepped a few steps back to create more space between the two of them, but Xanxus just took equal number of steps forward until the shark's back touches the wall behind him.

"Well?" asked Xanxus as he placed a hand on the wall behind Squalo. Now Xanxus's the one who was getting impatient because of the other not answering his question.

"I- I told you that I don't like her, didn't I?" Squalo answered his boss' question with another question. "Isn't it obvious that one will use _any_ method available to try to avoid the other when he hates him? You do have enough brain cells to know that, right?"

Xanxus didn't answer the shark's question. Instead, he leaned his head forward, closing the little gap between them, causing the shark to feel more and more uneasy.

"V- Voi. What do you want now?" the shark managed to ask.

Xanxus stared into Squalo's eyes. Blood red against silver. "You _do_ know that I don't like her _too_, don't you?" the boss finally asked.

"Tch, of course I know that." the shark answered, closing his eyes to break the starring between them. "Since when did you ever enjoy having _anyone_ around you?"

Since Squalo had his eyes closed, he didn't see Xanxus opening his mouth to answer, so he continued. "But liking her is for your own good. Whether if you two are getting married or not, she's going to be by your side for most probably the rest of your life. So you either enjoy having her presence around or you're going to have a prey that you can never eat beside you forever. And trust me, it's going to be_ damn_ irritating."

"I- "

"No, you can't kill her. During the mission, she took down the hundred A-class trashes along with me and Mammon. I can tell that she didn't even use her full strength on the mission. Tch, but it's not like _we_'re actually using _our_ full strength either. I also can tell you that she's _not_ some weakling that we thought she was. Besides, she's only a Guardian in the Fiancata Famiglia, who knows how strong her brother, who is the boss, is?"

"Are- "

"No, I'm not trying to say that you're weak, Boss. It's just for safety. Don't forget the war between the two famiglias. Maybe it's time that you stop acting like a spoiled child that wants everything to be done his way and start giving a thought about the others."

Xanxus fell silent at the shark's word. He closed his eyes and rested his head on the other's shoulder, ignoring the discomfort of the other.

"So," he began. "are you saying that I have to stick with this stupid, annoying woman because of some scums?"

Squalo opened his eyes. "I'm afraid so, Boss. You and I both know that there's nothing we can do about it."

Silence hung again. The two of them just stayed like that for a while. Squalo somehow managed to adjust himself into a more comfortable position though. He didn't even bother to ask his boss to get off from him.

"Voi," the shark broke the silence this time round. "do you have any more reasons for me to stay, Boss?"

Xanxus removed his head from Squalo's shoulder. "Squalo," he mumbled. The shark was a little taken back at this. It's one of the only times that the boss had called anyone by their name instead of a simple "trash" or "scum". ( He can't promise this was the first though. )

"Hn?" the shark was a little surprised that himself was so startled by this that he cannot even voice out a proper "yes?".

"You're the one who understands me the best." Xanxus continued. He wished to lie, but it's quite obvious to anyone that the shark is like the only one who understands him. Xanxus always thought that having emotions is a sign of weakness, that's why he tried to hide them. All except for his anger. The anger that Squalo admired so much. He never thought that he could ever be so readable. Until he met Squalo. That someone who followed the only emotion he showed, anger. That someone who can read him like a book. That's why the Rain Guardian was selected as the Second-in-Command. The right-hand-man of the scary, fearsome boss of Vongola's independent assassin squad, Varia. "Can you tell why am I so angry?"

"Tch, I don't think you ever _need_ a reason to be angry." the shark replied.

"Is _that_ what you think?" the boss questioned.

"Voi! Aren't you _always_ angry? What's the big deal?"

"BANG!"

Squalo was a bite startled as his boss slammed his fist against the wall beside the shark's head.

Xanxus don't deny that. After all, it _is_, in fact, the truth. When had there ever been a time that you see the adopted son of the Vongola Nono actually _happy_? But what made Xanxus unsatisfied with the answer is that Squalo, the one that is supposed to know him the best, don't know the _actual_ reason behind his anger.

The shark had no idea what was going on in his boss' brain, so he was surprised when Xanxus placed a firm kiss over his lips.

However, with the little experience from the 'incident' last time at the undercover mission, Squalo managed to react this time by trying to push his boss off him. But it was futile though. Xanxus is in fact stronger than him.

"Mmph" the shark tried to resist when the boss' tongue slide in, but Xanxus had already removed his hand from the wall and wrapped it around the shark's waist. The other hand was now at the back of Squalo's head, preventing him from retreating.

When Xanxus finally let go of his shark, Squalo panted heavily, trying to take in as much oxygen as possible.

"Wh- Why the hell did you do that for?" the shark attempted to yell at his boss, but kind of failed with the lack of air. "You already had a fiancee, so STOP teasing me why don't you?"

The scowl on Xanxus's face deepened when he heard the shark's words.

"I'm not." he answered, only to make Squalo's silver eyes stared into his crimson ones in disbelieve.

"You stupid shark," he placed a hand against the wall. "after that undercover mission, I told you that you'll understand _that_ someday, didn't I?"

"Y-Ya..." the shark answered hesitantly. "But it's not as if you ever explained it to me!"

Okay, that's enough! Xanxus grabbed Squalo's shoulder with so much force that the shark winced in the pain.

"YOU STUPID, DENSE, SHARK!" Xanxus roared in fury. "Is that stupid brain of yours too small to absorb the information? Do I look like someone who will just kiss any stupid trash? Which part of any of these do. you. not. under. stand?" with each word, the shark was slammed against the wall once.

"Gah! Boss, quit it!" the shark managed to shout at his boss. "What does it matter? I'm not a girl! I cannot love you! And you already had a fiancee! What do you want me to do?"

That made the boss speechless. His eyes widened in shock before lowering his head to face the ground. He was angry, ya that's right. But there's other emotions mixed with it. Sadness because he don't know whether if Squalo's answer means he loved him back or not, also because even if he _did_ love him back, they cannot be together. And he guessed that shock can be involved in that too. And of course, angry because he can't be together with his shark!

What the hell was he suppose to do now?

* * *

-Outside Xanxus's Office-

"Fufu. Xanxus and Squalo, I heard rumors about you two, and I guess it's true now. Hhmp, I knew this day will come. Now I just have to start with the reason I came here for."

* * *

-Outside Varia Mansion-

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Hai Hai! Who is it?" Lussuria asked as he opened the gate to the Varia Mansion, only to face a black haired-man.

"Fufu. Ciaossu, Lussuria is it? I came to visit Meridionale."

* * *

**A/N: OMG! I took so long to write finish this! There's so many things to work on!**

**The gramma.  
**

**The fluff.  
**

**The ICness of character.  
**

**...  
**

**OMG! *Scratch head* Now I thank all those authors with stories that I favourited/followed/read/whatever that can let me enjoy a good fluff! Seriously... romance is so hard to write...  
**

**I'm sorry this took so long. I think this is so far the chpt that took the longest to update! 1 WEEK! The 2nd longest is 5 days...  
**

**Anyway, enough with the ranting.  
**

**Please Review!  
**


	9. Mission 2: The Shark's Mission

**A/N: Hello minna! I'm back! **

**I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish this in time, cause I will be quite busy this week...**

**Anyway, watashi, ganbalimas! ( Did I spelled it correctly? )**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. I think this is obvious already anyway...**

* * *

Squalo sat down in his usual seat beside Xanxus's at the dinner table. The earlier conversation they had ended when the shark noticed that his boss did not intend to answer his question, so he took that as a sign to leave.

The table was already occupied with people. Except for Lussuria, of course. He's in charge of the dinner so he's in the kitchen. Mammon was already in his seat, pressing buttons on his calculator. Bel and Fran seated opposite of Squalo. Bel was still teasing Fran while the frog spite out insults at the prince. Levi was there too, but as usual, everyone chose to ignore him.

But the shark saw neither Xanxus nor Meridionale at the table.

"Oh Squ-chan, you're leaving already?" Lussuria asked as he walked out of the kitchen with plates of food in both hands, seeing Squalo stood up from his seat and headed towards the exit.

"Ushishishi. Of course. He has that mission that he must leave tonight." Bel answered.

"Oh, that's right!" Lussuria exclaimed as he suddenly remembered. "But you could at least stay after dinner, Squ-chan. There's no point of you going so early."

"It's okay." Squalo replied, not even bothering to turn around or stop. "There's no big deal done if I went there early, isn't there?"

"But, Squ-chan..."

"It's okay, Lussuria." Lussuria turned to look at Mammon who spoke. "Squalo can do whatever he wants, can't he? Besides, it's not as if we're able to change his mind after he made it up." Mammon continued his speech before going back to calculating his amount of money.

"Even though what you said is true, but Mammon-chan..." Lussuria wasn't able to finish his sentence as three knives flew towards him and barely missed his head.

"Ushishishi." Bel laughed his signature laugh, showing his Cheshire grin. "Enough talking, peasant. Besides, there's no point of you continuing anyway, since Squalo had already left."

"A-re?" Lussuria looked around the living room, searching for the figure of the certain shark. "Mou~ Squ-chan should pay more attention when people are talking!"

"Senpai, should we just ignore him?" Fran asked in his usual monotone.

"Ushishishi. Agreed, Froggy."

* * *

"So, how's your stay with the Vongola's independent assassin squad?"

"Fufu, interesting, I suppose."

"Fufu, glad to hear that. But I hope you haven't forgotten the reason you're in there."

"Of course I won't. Why would I?"

"So, when are we going to start?"

"Tonight. And probably now if I want to be more accurate."

"Fufu, why is that?"

"Squalo had a mission tonight. He probably would have left by now."

"Fufu, okay then. Let's start, shall we?"

...

* * *

"Nee, has anyone seen that soon-to-be-wife of Boss'?" Fran asked. It's not as if he actually cared about that woman's presence, really. But it's just that he's getting very irritated by Bel's teasing, so he's trying to change the subject.

"Now that you mentioned it..." Mammon said as he looked up from his food.

"Oh, that's right!" Lussuria exclaimed for the second time of the day. "Her brother came just now and picked her up to the Fiancata mansion. He's probably worried about her. What a nice man!"

"Here we go again..." Mammon mumbled as he turned back to his food.

"So that means no annoying woman for a while?" Fran asked sarcastically.

"Ushishishi. Bingo, Froggy!" Bel answered. "And guess what else? The Prince don't care!"

"Hey, shut up, you guys!" Levi shouted. "Where's Bossu?"

*Stab Stab Stab*

"Ushishi. Shut up, octopus peasant." Bel demanded. "Now..." he turned to face the others. "where's Boss?"

"That's what I asked!"

*Stab Stab Stab*

"Nobody asked you, peasant. Now shut up!"

"Now that you mentioned it, Bel-senpai..." Fran said as he tilted his head as if he's running through his thoughts. "Me haven't seen Boss at all today."

"Me too." Mammon added.

"Me neither." said Lussuria.

"Hmm. Me wonder what happened." Fran mumbled as he placed a finger under his chin.

"Squ-chan should know." Lussuria pointed out. "He's the last person to leave Boss' office."

"But we can't ask him now, can we?" Mammon questioned. "Let's just let things fall into places themselves. I mean, what could actually happen to Boss?"

"Uhmm, you got a point, Mammon-chan."

"Should I go check on Bossu?" Levi asked.

"NO!" everyone replied in unison.

Awkward silence filled the room for a good few seconds.

"Wow, for once we all agreed on something!" Fran stated out, but his tune didn't sound as excited as his words. "How cool is that?"

"How about 0%?" Bel questioned. "The Prince refused to have the same thought as you peasants. Because I'm Prince after all! I'm not like you normal peasants!"

"Me thought you said that Me's not a peasant, you forgetful fake prince senpai?"

*Stab Stab Stab*

"Ushishishi. The Prince didn't forget saying that, Froggy. But that doesn't mean that you have the authority to be like the Prince, because you are his pet. And for Froggy's information, Froggy should be punished for insulting the Prince!"

_Oh no._ Fran thought. _Here we go again..._

* * *

Squalo arrived at his destination. A mansion. The mission was an easy one. Kill everyone in his way. Don't let anyone run away. He took down the guards at the entrance and made his way in. No body seemed to notice his presence. Normally, he would had shouted his signature "VOIIIIIIIIIII" out loud and made them be aware of him. But now, he doesn't feel like doing it. All thanks to that bastard boss of his.

On his way to the main hall, he passed by a lot of rooms. But no one came out and charge at him. So he just have to open each and every one of them. But to his disappointment, there's no one in any one of them.

_Now that's strange._ Squalo thought. _They shouldn't have known that I'll be coming here? They also couldn't be hiding. So where in the world are they?_

After reaching the main hall, he was even more surprised.

There, standing right in front of his very own eyes, is a giant Spinosaurus. In its mouth, a raven haired man.

"What the hell?" Squalo shouted as he noticed the scene. He saw this image before when he, along with the rest of the Varia, received the memory of the world 10 years later in the future. It was when _he_ was fighting that one hell of a bastard, Zakuro, back at the Vongola Base to buy those brats time to bring Yuni to a safe place. While _the rest of the Varias_ got to the forest and safe the sorry asses of that Vongola Storm Guardian, the Black Spell member and the failed Arcobaleno of CEDEF.

And that is when it happened.

While Bel, Lussuria and Levi were going after Bluebell, Xanxus went to attack Zakuro. Originally, it appeared as he had killed the Storm Real Six Funeral Wreath, but in reality, it was Zakuro who led the boss of Varia into Kikyo's area. And that is when Xanxus was killed by the Spinosaurus created by the leader of the Real Six Funeral Wreaths.

But thank God that it was later revealed to be an illusion created by Mukuro and Fran.

That's all the information he got. But there's something that doesn't fit in.

The Xanxus here...

had short spiky hair. And he's wearing the _present_ Varia uniform.

_So... does that mean... Oh crap..._

Sure, the Real Six Funeral Wreaths were defeated and dead. But that's something that happened _10 years later in the future._ Not to mention in another parallel world. So that means that Byakuran, along with his 6 guardians, could still be alive in this time. And that includes Kikyo.

Could it be that Kikyo came and attacked Xanxus? Speaking of which, why is Xanxus here in the first place? Nevermind those for now, if he don't want to see his boss dying in front of his very own eyes, again, he should just help.

It didn't took Squalo too much effort to jump towards the Spinosaurus and chop its head off in one clean stroke. His main aim in trying to free his boss from the giant monster's mouth is accomplished when it's head fell off from the rest of it's body and it's mouth opened slightly to give Xanxus enough room to escape. But what is more troublesome is that the detached head landed on the floor, and the rest of its body started to grow at the part where it's head was chopped, creating a new Spinosaurus. The same thing happened with the body. Causing Squalo to face 2 of them.

"What the hell?" Squalo shouted as he sliced both of them at the same time with his sword attached to his left hand, but it was futile. The detached body parts regenerated again like how it did the previous time.

"Shit. Cloud attribute propagation, huh?" Squalo muttered.

The battle is getting harder when the Spinosaurus splited themselves into halves without Squalo chopping their limbs down and continued with this until Squalo is face to face with an army of them.

"Tch. This is never-ending." Squalo groaned under his breath.

_Now where is that son-of-a-bitch boss? Can't he just use his Sky attribute harmony to turn them into stones and burn them into ashes? That sure will save us, wait no, me, a lot more troubles._

Squalo jumped from his spot as a group of the Spinosaurus attacked him. He landed on the railing on the 2nd floor and stared as they retreated their heads to reveal a badly damaged floor.

_Let's just use that._

Squalo took out his Box and punched his Rain-class Ring into it. Alo came out as the Box opened and swam around the area, spreading the whole room with Rain-class flame along with it.

_That should slow them down from multiplying._ Squalo thought as he once more charged towards them, cutting them down. But this time, they didn't regenerate. Thanks to the Rain attribute tranquility spread in the room by his Box Animal.

_I better hurry with this_. Squalo waved his sword diagonally at the Spinosaurus, tearing them apart easily. It was a good thing that they were already bathed in the Rain flame to prevent them from regenerating. Or else they probably will multiply into millions by now.

_That should do it._ Squalo looked around the area, the giant green monsters' limbs were all dispersed, blood were flowing everywhere. It was a kind of gory scene to witness, but it's not as if the Varia never witness anything gory before anyway.

Just as Squalo was about to sigh out in relief, he felt something behind him. But he was too late to notice the one Spinosaurus that attacked him from underground. It bit down on the shark's neck with its sharp teeth, causing the swordsman to scream out in pain.

Squalo passed out after that. Not noticing the strange arms wrapped around his body...

* * *

**A/N: OMG! I'm so godamn sorry that I took so long to finish this! Gomenasai! ( I hope I spelled that correctly too )**

**Like I said, I was busy to the EXTREME this week, so I don't really have enough time to finish this in time. *bows bows***

**I hope I phrased the words nicely enough... When I plotted it, I use my imagination ( power of self mental images... ) instead of words, so it's kindda hard to write it down.**

**Anyway... the next few chpts will probably took more time as well. Please forgive me. And no, I cannot ensure that it'll make your day, since I'm not very sure myself if it'll be like I imagined...**

**Please Review & Please forgive me!**


	10. Ouji-Sama's Discovery

**A/N: Okay Fanfiction! ( LOL! Attempt in copying Byakuran-sama's "Okay Tokyo!". Have you guys heard about it? In Rebocon? ) I'm back! *cheers and claps in background***

**Like I said, this might be a little late... I don't know... I'll try to get this done in time.**

**And also, I said that I'm not responsible if this doesn't make your day. I'm not even very sure myself...**

**Now, let's just sit back, and enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR nor Varia.**

* * *

Xanxus tapped his finger rhythmically on his office desk. He had chose to skip dinner that night to prevent seeing his shark's face. And not to mention that annoying woman too...

Xanxus was surprised that no one had yet to come upstairs and call him down for dinner. No one. Not even that stupid loyal dog, Levi. Well, nevermind that. He don't want anyone to disturb him right now anyway. Especially that Levi.

He wanted to be alone now. And think through what he should do. He don't want to face Squalo when he's in this state. He's supposed to be the great boss of Varia. The badass, fearsome son of the Vongola Ninth. And that shark of his is his inferior. How was he suppose to face him now that he's like a heart-broken middle school girls? No. That'll make him look weak. That Mist Guardian of that Sawada brat is not even that weak. Well, maybe she is since she was defeated by Mammon. If it's not because of Rokudo Mukuro, Mammon would have probably won in the Mist Battle and grant him the seat to the Vongola Boss already. Wait, wait.. he's getting off topic now... urgh!

He originally thought that he could keep his feeling of attraction to the shark a secret. Never letting anyone know. Not even Squalo. But this annoying woman just have to appear out of no where and ruin everything. And what's worse is he can't even kill her!

Xanus knows that it really is silly to prevent seeing his shark because he knows that _he_'s the thing that he wanted to see the most now. But he can't really let the swordsman see him like this. Squalo will probably cut his hair and quit if he saw him. Especially right after _that_ incident.

*Sigh* _Squalo will probably hate me now. I should be grateful if he didn't quit._

* * *

"Why does _all of us_ have to came just to take down _one_ person?"

"Well, we did our job, didn't we?"

"Ya, by taking down lots of low lives. But that's not much."

"And it sure is a pain."

"Well, we have to do it in order to prevent them from interrupting with the illusion."

"It is in fact necessary. The illusion will be ruined if we let anyone here interfere with it."

"The illusion is really important that we even have to get two people to set it up. As you can see."

"I can't believe that guy really took down those monsters of the Real Six Funeral Wreaths' Kikyo. Although it _is_ an illusion, but it's pretty real."

"Duh. I said that it was created by two people, didn't I?"

"So... what are we suppose to do now?"

"Well, we'll send him home."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Oh, don't tell me you mean _that_..."

"Yep, that's what I meant."

...

* * *

Back in the Varia Headquarter's dining room, the Varia members, excluding their boss, had already finished dinner. Lussuria was back in the kitchen washing the dishes. Bel and Fran had already left to the living room for some TV time. Mammon was still sitting in his seat, pressing buttons on his calculator. Levi is just there, making himself look extra.

"Mou, seriously, why did Squ-chan has to skip dinner?" Lussuria mumbled to himself. "Does he hate my cooking? But I don't think I have changed any of my recipe these days though. Well, at least I'm glad that Bel-chan and Mammon-chan finished his meal so there won't be any left overs. It'll be such a waste of food! Well, what can I say? That's the appetite of growing children. Fran-chan should eat more too. I'm sure he didn't eat much at the Kokuyou Land. And all they fed him with is candies. That's so unhealthy! Speaking of which, where's Boss? He didn't come downstairs at all. I knew we should go upstairs to get him down, but he seemed quite moody. Maybe I'll ask Squ-chan what happened when he comes back."

"Oi Luss," said Mammon from his seat. "Do you mind speaking softer? I can hear you from here."

"The Prince too." Bel said as he waved his arm from outside the dining room door.

"Same here." agreed Fran.

"OH! Sorry my dears." Lussuria walked out of the kitchen and apologized. "It's just that I was wondering why Squ-chan skipped dinner then I was glad that the two of you helped cleared it up." Lussuria said, pointing at Mammon and Bel.

"Ushishishi. No biggie. The Prince thinks he will enjoy seeing Sharky's face when he comes back and saw that his dinner was eaten up by the Prince."

"You guys talking about me?"

Everyone, including Bel and Fran, turned towards the door of the dining room to see Squalo standing there, right behind Bel.

"Yes, Taichou. Bel-senpai said that he will enjoy seeing your face when you came back, seeing you dinner eaten by said fake prince senpai." Fran raised his arm a little as he reported the conversation to the Varia Strategy Captain.

"Oh ya. And I was thinking that Fran-chan needs to eat more, since he didn't have much at Kokuyou Land." Lussuria continued with his uncompleted speech.

"Ushishi. Did that pineapple-haired master of Froggy's didn't feed you well enough?" Bel asked as he rested both his arms on the giant frog hat that he forced his kouhai to wear.

"No he didn't." Fran answered, still in monotone. "And Me thinks that it's none of your concern, senpai."

"Ushishi. Of course it is, silly Froggy. That pineapple peasant is responsible in feeding the Prince's Froggy properly."

"And then I was thinking why didn't Boss came down to dinner and we should have gone up and get him down."

"I said I'll go but you guys said no!" Levi shouted.

*Stab Stab*

"Shut up, Octopus. Nobody asks you."

"But-"

*Stab Stab*

"Don't try to disobey the Prince."

"And then I was thinking of asking Squ-chan what happened when he comes back before you guys said I was too loud." Lussuria finished his speech.

"Ya, and we get the rest." Mammon said, looking up from his calculator.

"You got something to ask me?" Squalo asked as he turned to face the Sun Guardian.

"Ah, YES!" Lussuria screamed. "Like I said, I was going to ask you-"

"Ushishi. We wanted to ask you what happened to the boss that made him not want to come down and have dinner with us. Since apparently, you are the last one to leave his office." Bel cut in before Lussuria could finish speaking.

"My dear naughty prince," Lussuria pointed a finger at the Storm Guardian. "Didn't your mother teach you not to interfere when other people are talking?"

"Ushishi. The Prince killed his mother with his own hands. Why would he want to listen to her?" Bel questioned as he removed his arms from Fran's hat and placed them behind his head. "Besides, the Prince should be the one to ask Sharky, since, why of course, he's the Prince. Ushishishishishi."

"Well, first thing first." everyone shifted their attention onto Squalo. "I had no idea what's with the boss. And I don't care what happened to him. Oh, and don't you guys dare to ask me anything related to him again. Oh, and by the way, Meridionale is back. I met up with her on my way back." Squalo announced before leaving.

"Ah wait, Squ-chan." Lussuria called out to the shark before he stopped and turned around. "Would you like some dinner? I can make some for you."

"No thanks." Squalo replied, turning away. "I'm going back to my room." he said as he walked up the stairs.

"Ow, that woman is back. How great is that?" Fran asked in sarcasm.

"Did she just left for dinner?" Mammon asked.

"Don't tell me there really is someone who hates my cooking." Lussuria pouted as he pressed both his index fingers together.

"Don't worry Luss, no one hates your cooking." Fran patted Lussuria's shoulder in attempt to cheer the poor Sun Guardian up. "Me don't. And Mammon-san probably don't too. And Me's sure that Bel-senpai don't too. Right, senpai?"

"..."

Upon not receiving a respond from the Storm Guardian, the Mist turned to look at his senpai, only to see him staring at the staicase that Squalo walked up just a few minutes ago.

"Senpai?" Fran called out again to snap Bel out of whatever is on him mind. "Eh, you calling the Prince, Froggy?"

"What's up with you, Bel-senpai?" Fran asked, with a little sound of concern in his usual monotone voice.

"Ushishi. Nothing." Bel tried to hid his thoughts by showing his Cheshire grin.

"You cannot fool me, Bel." Mammon spoke. "What's going on?"

"Ushishishi. The Prince said nothing, and he means _nothing_. What could possibly be wrong with the Prince? Ushishi." Bel finished laughing before heading off to the living room again to enjoy his TV.

The rest of the Varia exchanged looks before Fran spoke up. "Let's just ignore this."

"But Fran-chan, we can't!" Lussuria screamed. "And you can't too. Remember what I told you. We're a family. We're supposed to help and care for one another."

"Oh sure. Me can see that the fake prince 'cared' about Me by acknowledging Me's presence by throwing weird-shaped knifes at Me."

"Oh Fran-chan, don't say that." Lussuria said as he waved his hand in a girly manner. "Bel-chan is just... well... playing with you."

"Ya, with a toy that can kill a person." Fran fighted back.

"Well... that's... umm... does anyone bother to help me out a little?" Lussuria asked as he looked over at Mammon.

"I'll pass." Mammon said as he turned back to his money.

"See? We don't really cared about one another." Fran pointed out.

"Mou~ Mammon-chan, you're suppose to set up a good example to your inheritor." Lussuria pouted.

"Well, I don't like to do work without payment. And besides, I thought that you'll enjoy the teaching of our baby officer." Mammon said.

"Says the one who is literally a baby himself." Fran said in sarcasm.

"Mou~ Fran-chan, that's not very polite." Lussuria scolded.

"Che" Fran pouted this time as he turned his head away.

"Mou, you naughty children." Lussuria said as he turned from Fran to Mammon. "I, the mother of Varia, know that you guys really _do_ cared about each other. And one day, I'll prove it!"

* * *

**Somehow it seems like I have made it in time, huh? Well, good for you guy! I think...**

**This chpt is a lot easier to write than the others, since I have already plotted this long time ago. So it makes my life easier.**

**There's nothing really important happening in this chpt. But it'll be needed for the story to continue.**

**Once again, if this doesn't make your day, PLEASE, don't blame me. *hides in the corner of the room***

**Please Review and Please Look forward to the next chpt!**

**Arigatou!**


	11. The Missing Prince

**A/N: Mina-san, CIAOSSU! I hope I didn't make those who were waiting for this chpt wait too long *guilty***

**I just figured that I may stick to the 1 week per post schedule, since... well, I also got other stuff to do... and I hope it won't be too long... And it probably will end up being 1 month per post when school starts in, like, the next month...  
**

**So ya, let's just continue with the story...  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, if I did, I'll give out Squ-chan's background story.  
**

* * *

Xanxus was still in his office, in his own thoughts of confusions, without going out to eat dinner. He didn't even keep track of the time.

_Oh shit_. Xanxus thought as he looked up at the clock hanged on the wall after finally gotten out from his own world. _It's already this late and Squalo still haven't come back? How in the world is that possible? It's not really a difficult mission. Is it? Then why isn't he back yet? Or could it be... don't tell me he really quit? Is he that mad at me?_ Xanxus thought as he started mentally cursing himself and at the same time wondering if he had made the right choice by telling the shark how he feel that day.

*Sigh* "Maybe it's not that much of a wise choice to tell the truth all the time, huh?" Xanxus mumbled to himself.

"Oh Boss, don't be silly! It's definitely a wise choice to tell the truth." Xanxus looked up from his table, which he developed a sudden interest in staring at, and saw his Sun Guardian standing at the door.

"Why are you here?" Xanxus asked, trying to hide his pitiful self and act like his normal self. "I don't remember ordering you here."

"Oh Boss, don't say such thing!" Lussuria said as he walked towards his boss, a plate in both hands. "I came to deliver your dinner."

"Shouldn't that be Squalo's job?" Xanxus questioned. "Hadn't he return from the mission?"

The Sky isn't quite ready to hear the answer, afraid that the Sun will say "no", but what made him surprised was when he actually said "yes".

"Yes, Boss. He had come back." answered Lussuria as he placed the plate on the desk.

"Then why hasn't he reported to me? Why it isn't he the one to come and serve my dinner but you? Why didn't he even shout like how he usually did when he came back? Why-"

"Boss! Calm down!" the self-claimed Varia's Mama said as he raised both hands up, trying to slow down his boss. "You can't get anything out of me! Since apparently, I don't know either. He just came back a while ago and said that he's going back to his room."

"Shouldn't he report to me about the mission first before he does anything else?"

"Ya, that what he usually do, but..." Lussuria paused, trying to figure out a reasonable excuse for the shark, but didn't manage to think of one.

"Uhh... ano... sono... I'm also not sure why."

"Is that so?" Xanxus questioned, more to himself than the Sun.

Lussuria nodded. "By the way. what's with that 'telling the truth' thing that you were mumbling about just now?" the Sun asked with concern.

"Nothing."

"Anyway Boss, you really should eat something. It's not healthy to skip meals."

The boss nodded as took his fork and started eating.

"Mou, I really don't understand what's with you and Squ-chan." Lussuria said. "Why you both chose to skip dinner? And Meridionale-chan too. At first I thought she just went back home for a while since, well, she had been staying here for quite a while and, well, just maybe, will miss her own home. So it shouldn't be strange for her to go back once in a while. But Squ-chan said that she had come back already. And it's only for dinner time! Did she just went to have dinner at her brother's place? Why all three of you have to skip dinner? Do you guys hate my cooking or something?"

Lussuria turned towards his boss, who doesn't seem to be listening. Actually Xanxus was shocked when the Sun said that Squalo didn't go for dinner, but then he was a little disappointed that the Fiancata Cloud had come back. Truth to be told is that he didn't even know she left. But who cares？ It's a good thing that she left. If only she could stay there longer...

_So Squalo really hates me, huh?_ Xanxus thought. _There's no other reason than that he'll skip dinner and didn't even report the mission to me._

"Mou, Boss. Are you listening?" Lussuria asked the scarred man, who didn't even bother to answer back. So he decided to leave his boss alone, and will come back later to get the plate.

* * *

"Is it really okay to leave it like this?"

"Of course, Boss ordered it to be done like this."

"Or is it that you're saying you have any better idea then?"

"But what if he got send on a mission? Won't he be found out?"

"Don't worry about that."

"We checked the mission list already,"

"And it's said that all the mission he will be having is done by one self."

"So there you have it."

"I'm still not very sure about this idea. The Varias aren't easy to fool..."

"Don't need to worry about that. _He_ has his way of doing things."

"How long was he supposed to stay there anyway?"

"Just as long as it takes to get what we want done."

"And how long will _that_ be?"

"Well... depends. It's a matter of how long he needs."

"That's not much of an answer..."

* * *

-The next day-

"Fran-chan. Mammon-chan. What are you two doing?" Lussuria asked as he witness the two illusionist walking along the corridor, opening every door they passed.

"Looking for Bel."

"Looking for senpai."

The two mist holders turned around to stare at each other as they noticed what they had just said. In UNISON.

"Should this be a good thing that we had something in common?" Fran asked in his monotone.

"Who knows? Don't tell me you're also looking for him to get him to pay up for all the strawberry ice cream that he ate yesterday?" Mammon questioned. "That's some improvement, my inheritor."

"No. Unfortunately, Me is not as money-minded as you, Mammon-san." Fran said provokingly.

"Bel-chan is missing?" Lussuria asked again.

"Maybe. Maybe not. That childish fake prince may just be playing hide-and-seek with us." Fran answered nonchalantly.

"Anyway, we, or rather _I_, didn't see him in his room this morning." Mammon stated.

"There isn't any mission assigned to him, is there?" Lussuria asked again.

"No, he won't be having mission for the next two days." Fran answered. "Some mother you are to not even know whether of not your 'child' got any mission."

"Well, it's not _my_ fault that Bel-chan didn't actually told me anything about his mission schedule. I don't think _any_ of you ever did." Lussuria made up an excuse for himself.

"Well, it's not as if he got tell _us_." Mammon said.

"So how do you think _we_ know whether he got mission or not?" Fran continued.

Awkward silence filled the room, or rather corridor, as the two Mist Guardians slowly turned their heads around to face and stare at each other for a good 10 seconds before Mammon broke the silence. "Never quite expect that we could pull this out so well."

"Me never thought of it myself too." Fran agreed.

"Shouldn't we just do the old fashion way by just giving Bel-chan a call or something?" Lussuria suggested.

"Good point." the two illusionists said in unison before they started their staring contest, again.

* * *

Xanxus stared outside the giant window behind his desk. He had not seen Squalo that morning at breakfast. The boss knew that the shark had a mission that morning, but the no point in going so early, right? There's no better reason to explain the strangeness of the swordsman other than he's avoiding his boss.

Ya. That _has_ to be the reason why. What else explanation does he need? His shark had skipped dinner the night before, and didn't report to him after the mission, and now, he's skipping breakfast?

Xanxus had not seen Squalo since he left his office the day before. And when he refuse to see him again, he chose to skip dinner. Now, he thought that it was a stupid choice to make. Since he currently wanted to see his shark so dearly.

Before, Squalo is always by his side. Ever since they met in their teenage years. He's the one who vowed to follow him forever. The one who sweared his loyalty to him. The one who promised not to cut his hair ever again until he became to official boss of Vongola.

Even though he really don't like, and he used to hate, the Sword Emperor's loud voice, now he kinda missed it.

That loud voice used to piss him off. And it still did sometimes now. So he decided to solved the problem, by throwing wine glasses at the owner's head to shut him up. It doesn't really solved the problem though, since it just made said owner angrier and louder. Xanxus sometimes wonder why he still do that even though he knew it's not gonna work. But then later, he figured out that it's because he enjoy pissing the shark off.

Also that hair he grow in the past few years. It used to be spikes. Now it's all the way below his waist. That's the work done by those 8 years. Xanxus thought that it's a stupid promise to make before. But now, he wonders what will happen if he didn't make that promise in the first place. He won't be able to enjoy pulling that long, silky hair anymore. He also couldn't enjoy seeing the red alcohol flow down it any longer. And he guess he'll be very sad if he can't run his fingers through that long hair...

And that eyes. It still didn't change in the 8 past years. Still proud and beautiful like it was before.

Xanxus knew that he'll regret not going down to see Squalo the night before, and he really is now.

He knew it's not a wise choice to tell the shark how he felt. But that Gaylord said it _is_. If it being a wise choice requires not being able to see his shark nor talk to him, the boss will consider that as not a wise choice.

* * *

"Hmm, that's strange." Lussuria said to the two illusionists who were still having their staring contest. "Bel-chan isn't answering his transmitter."

"How is _that_ possible?" Mammon questioned, turning around to face Lussuria, breaking the stare between him and Fran.

"Mammon-san, you lose." Fran stated out. "That means Me wins!" the younger Mist cheered at he raised both his arms into the air.

"I'm not playing with you, Fran."

"You're just denying your lose."

"I'm not."

"Don't deny the truth."

"It's not the truth."

"Maa maa, quiet down you two." Lussuria said as he made himself stand in between the two, raising his hands a little. "Now shouldn't it be strange? Varia members should always have their transmitters with them. So what makes Bel-chan not answer?"

"Maybe he run out of knives to throw at some random person and decided to use the transmitter instead?" Fran asked.

"Fran, you can be more creative than that." said Mammon.

"Thanks for the not-so-good compliment, Mammon-san." replied Fran.

"Mou, enough already, you two." Lussuria said. "Now where in the world could Bel-chan be?"

* * *

**A/N: Ya, so... ya... that's it for chpt 11.**

**It's kinda hard to figure out which to write first and which should save for the later chpts...**

******It's also hard to stick with a certain number of words for every chpt. Like for my case, 2000+ words per chpt. I had no idea what to write to fill up those words, so I ended up thinking up random arguments. But hey, it's not as if the Varias never argue right?**  


******Would any one of you believe it if I said that I originally planned to write this story in a more formal way instead of a humor one? Well, it can't be helped! I suck at being formal when it comes to writing! *Sad*  
**

**Good thing is that this story is already starting it's 2 digited chpt!  
**

**WOW! Longer than I imagined!  
**

**Please Review. Bad or Good, I** **accept all.  
**


	12. Bel is found, but-

**A/N: Ciaossu minna! **

**Like I said, this will be a 1 chpt per week post. So please just wait patiently until ... , for my case, Friday. ( Although it sometimes ended up being posted at 11pm-12am... *guilty* )**

**Until then, wait patiently. O(n_n)O~~~**

**And sorry if anyone thinks that Xanxus is a little OOC... Okay, maybe _a lot_ OOC... But I thought that no matter how hard you try, there will always be a _little_ OOCness in the KHR characters in yaoi fanfics. If not, how could the story even happen in the first place? ( Although my Xanxus is _seriously_ very OOC... )**

**Anyone agree?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, I own the plot.**

* * *

"What's this?" Belphegor, also known as 'Prince the Ripper', asked as he witness the scene unfold before him.

Three men, sitting in an alleyway, leaning against the wall behind them, each with a pool of blood in their stomach and _only_ their stomach, most probably dead. And the wall behind them, got small holes that formed the outer shapes of three human body.

"Ushishishi. Looks like the Prince had made a right decision to check on Sharky's 'work'." Bel laughed as he approach the wall. The holes in the wall were small and round, as if it was shot through by bullets. The Storm Guardian then bent down so that he could make himself the same hight as one of the corpses. He observed the injury on his stomach, there was also a hole in it, like he was being stabbed through.

_Tch. This isn't even gory enough compared to Squalo's previous works._ Bel thought. _And what's with the holes?_

"Who's there?"

The Prince turned around and quickly tilted his head away just in time to prevent himself from being hit by whatever things that were sent flying towards his direction.

*PING PING PING*

Bel shot a quick glance at the wall and saw three glittering objects, or in this case, weapons, stuck on it. He pulled one of it out and observed the hole made. It was _exactly_ the same kind as the other ones on the wall! Bel turned to face the owner of the weapons who threw them at him.

"Ushishi. Who are you?"

* * *

"Let's just go out and look for Senpai." Fran suggested. "Doesn't _that_ sound more helpful compared to just standing here, listening to Luss whining?"

"Agreed." said Mammon.

"Maa, I'll just be nice and close one eye and pretend that I didn't hear the last part." added Lussuria as he literally closed one eye, not really neccessary since no one can see it with his sunglasses in the way.

"Then let's go." Fran said as he ignored Lussuria's comment and began walking towards the entrance of the Varia Mansion, with Mammon and Lussuria following behind him. When Fran opened the door as they reached there, they were face to face with a certain shark.

"You guys heading out?" Squalo asked.

"Yup, going out to find Bel-senpai." Fran took the initiative to answer the Strategy Captain's question.

"Ha?"

"Well Squ-chan, the thing is that we can't find Bel-chan anywhere in the Varia Mansion." explained Lussuria. "So we thought that maybe he had headed out and we're now going to look for him."

"So?" Squalo questioned. "Bel's not a baby. He doesn't need to be baby-sitted. That one hell of a crap Prince could just be blood high and go out to kill some randomn people in the middle of the street."

"Ya, but he didn't even answer his transmitter. Doesn't _that_ sound like something strange?" Lussuria continued explaining to the shark.

"So... are you guys saying that Bel is missing now?"

"Ya, what else do you think will make _us_ go out of the mansion to find him?" Mammon questioned back. "Not to mention without payment."

"Okay, I can go out with you too." the Rain Guardian volunteered.

"But don't you need to report your mission to Boss?" the Sun Guardian asked.

"Nevermind about that. I can take care of it later. After we find Bel." Squalo answered.

"Okay, so stop chit-chatting now and get going." announced Fran as he made his way out of the door.

* * *

"So, he left without reporting... again." Xanxus whispered to himself.

_Is it that hard to see me that you have to avoid each and every chance of seeing me? Maybe I should just go and apologize. Tch. No way. If like that he quit for sure. There's no way he's going to continue following a boss who apologize to his own subordinate just because of small matters like this. Urgh. Curse that thought of mine... Maybe I should just let it be. We can't be together after all anyway... *_Sigh*

* * *

"So it's decided then. I go towards South, Luss search the North, Taichou look at the East, Mammon-san will take care of the West." Fran announced.

"Okay!" Lussuria screamed.

"Fine by me." agreed Mammon.

"Then let's get started." announced Squalo before the four Varia Guardians dispersed themselves in different directions.

* * *

-Half an hour later-

"Oi, Fran. Did you find anything yet?" Fran stopped on his track as he heard Mammon's voice coming out from his transmitter.

"No." Fran answered. "How about your side?"

"Not a thing."

"Don't be so impatient, Mammon-san. We just started looking, Bel-senpai isn't going to be found so soon. And if that happens, it'll be called 'a miracle'."

"But it really is strange. I'm already using my illusion of clones to search a larger amount of area at the same time, but there's still nothing found."

"Oh, Mammon-chan. Don't worry." Lussuria's voice was heard in the two illusionists' transmitter.

"I didn't say that I'm worrying, Lussuria."

"Oh, don't try to deny it, Mammon-chan. I can hear it in your voice."

"True. Me too."

"Shut up, Fran."

"Don't wanna."

"I'll kill you personally when I see you later."

"Sure, but who's going to be you inheritor if I die?"

"I won't need that kind of thing as long as I don't die."

"You can never be sure of when you are dying, Mammon-san."

"Oh, then what makes you so sure that I'm going to die?"

"Well, the story that my pineapple haired master and Bel-senpai and Luss told Me?"

"Fran-chan! I told you already it's not a story! It's the memory we received from the world ten year later!"

"Whatever. Anyway, you guys told Me that Mammon-san is dead in there."

"Oh, Fran-chan. Don't curse! The Sky Arcobaleno of that time told us that we'll not be having the same future as that parallel world."

"So does that mean that I'm not going to die?"

"Yup!"

"Oi." Squalo's voice was heard. "Are you guys really looking for Bel seriously? What's with all the chit-chatting?"

"Sorry Taichou."

"Fine."

* * *

-Another half an hour later-

"Oi~ Taichou." Fran covered his mouth as he yawned. "Me cannot find Senpai at all~"

"Same here." Mammon replied.

"And we had already searched for an hour!" Lussuria added.

"You guys sure that you didn't find _any_thing?"

"Yup."

"Not even a trace of blood?"

"There is blood everywhere, but it all belongs to some guy who isn't Bel-senpai."

"Knives?"

"Ya, but they're not Bel-chan's."

"Don't tell me you didn't even find a single hair!"

"Mammon-san, face reality. There are a lot of blondes in Italy..."

"And how are we suppose to know if it's Bel-chan?"

"..."

"Hello?"

"Mammon-chan, are you listening?"

"Ya, I am! Nevermind, screw whatever I just said..."

"Oi, you guys." Squalo's voice was heard.

"Yes long hair Taichou?"

"What took you so long to answer, Squ-chan?"

"I think I found Bel."

...

* * *

"Bel-chan!" Lussuria, who reached there the last, screamed as he ran towards a bloody Bel who's not sure if dead or not.

"He's still breathing." Mammon, who had reached there earlier than him, announced.

"Luss, do your job. Onegaishimas." said Fran, who's the first to reach there.

"Okay, okay." Lussuria said as he lit his Sun Varia Ring and let Kuu out of its Box.

"Do you believe us now that there's a need to come out and look for him personally?" Mammon asked Squalo while Kuu is using its Sun flame to heal Bel.

"Well... ya." the Varia Rain Guardian answered after running through his mind.

"What had he done to make himself in such a mess?" Fran questioned as he stared at Mammon.

"How should I know?" the former Mist Guardian of Varia questioned back. "Ask Squalo. He's the one who found him."

"I don't know! I just found Bel's knives around the area and..." the shark paused, looking towards Bel. "when I found him, he's already like that."

"How long does it take to heal him?" Fran turned his head towards the self-claimed 'Mama' of the Varia.

"Oh my." yelped the said 'Mama'. "He lost a lot of blood! I don't think I can completely heal him in just one day. Let's bring him back to the Varia Mansion first."

"Okay." Fran said as he looked at the Second in Command of the Varia.

"What are you staring at me like that for?" Squalo asked with a slight frown.

"For you to use your Box Animal to take this bloody crap of a fake prince senpai back?" Fran answered.

"That's a long name, Fran." Mammon stated out.

"Won't it be better if we just let Mammon bring him back using his teleportation?" Squalo suggested.

"Mu, good point." agreed Mammon as he floated towards Bel's bloody body. "Ja, I'll see you guys back in the Varia Mansion then. I'll bring him to the infirmary first." the Mist Arcobaleno said as he teleported himself and the Storm Guardian back.

"Um, onegaishimas." replied Fran as he stared at the two who are slowly vanishing into thin air.

"Come on, Fran-chan." said Lussuria as he patted the back of the young illusionist's head, which is actually that giant frog hat that he's wearing. "Let's head back too."

* * *

**A/N: GOMENASAI~~~ Even though I said that this will be posted every Friday, I ended up updating this one day late! Please forgive me! *bowing n times***

**This chpt is, for some dunno what reason, godamn hard to write! I keep not knowing what to write to fill up that 2000+ words! Like I said... I suck at english... *guilty***

**I'm not sure if I'll be able to post the next one in time. Even though I plotted the scenes, it became hard when I'm trying to type it out...**

**Anyway, please just look forward to it!**

**Please Read and Please Reaview!**


	13. Mission 3: Search Group

**A/N: Hello minna! For safety reason, I started writing this chpt early! Hope that I can finish it in time this time...**

**Actually, this one took me a lot of time thinking... You see, I'm not the type of author who plotted finish the whole story before typing it out... So... ya...**

**Anyway, I thank those who have reviewed, I think I haven't said that in a while. *bows bows* Thank you those people who waited for this, read this, reviewed to this, alerted this, favourited this, and most importantly... those who appreciated my effort and don't mind my word counts and lack of vocabulary words... *bows again***

**And now, let's just hurry up with the story...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. It belongs to Amano. *sad***

* * *

"How's Bel-chan doing?" the Varia's 'Mama' asked the Mist Arcobaleno who just came out from the infirmary of the Varia Mansion.

"I told you already, he's alive." Mammon replied. "He did the surgery, but even so, he probably won't be able to wake up from his coma within a week. And even if he did wakes up, he won't be able to take any mission for another week."

"Soka..." Fran mumbled under his breath, lowering his head so that his eyes were covered by his teal coloured hair.

"Who's the one who dared to do _this_ to one of the Varia Guardians?!" Lussuria shouted as he peeped inside the window of Bel's room. The young, blond-haired prince was lying on the bed, with his long bangs covering his eyes. His tiara was placed on the table beside him. His body was covered by bandages, hiding all the cuts that was on it.

"Unforgivable." Mammon muttered. "Whoever he is, I'll find him and make him pay! This is a serious insult to the Varia and its member! And nobody dares to insult me!" Lussuria stepped aside as he noticed a dark aura surrounding the floating infant that could just swallow anyone close to it.

"Mammon-san," the Sun Guardian turned to face the young illusionist, sitting on the floor, who voiced out. "Me will come with you."

"Wha-" the gaylord was at a loss of words. Their former Mist Guardian wants the person, who nearly killed Bel, dead. It's strange that the money-minded baby will actually be willing to do something without getting paid. Lussuria was sure that he had known the Mist Arcobaleno well enough to know that this don't happen regularly. Or maybe _at all_. So why is it happening now? And more importantly, the youngest Varia member is actually wanting to do it too?! The Varia 'Mama' admit that he don't know much about Fran since he just joined them, but with the experience he had by spending nearly half year with the kid, he could say the same thing as what he did to Mammon.

"Then I'm coming too." Lussuria voiced out. For someone who could do this to 'Prince the Ripper', the Varia's genius of battle, will surely not be easy to take care of. He definitely couldn't afford to let the two 'children' go on their own.

"Sure." Mammon nodded as he approved for the two to join him. "First thing's first, let's go back to the place where we found Bel. The best place to search for clues is always the scene of the crime."

"Understood." the Mist and Sun nodded in agreement.

"I'll use my teleportation to send us back there. And then we'll-"

"Wait." Lussuria interrupted the former Mist Guardian's speech. "Don't we have to inform the boss about this first? Before we leave?"

"No need for that." Fran replied. "Squ-Taichou had probably informed him by now. Since he needs to go there to report about his mission earlier anyway, he may as well as just tell him about this in the meantime."

"Got a point."

"Now," Mammon continued his unfinished speech. "if there's no other problem, can we leave now?"

"Sure, Mammon-chan."

And so the Mist Arcobaleno sent clouds of mist surrounding himself, along with the other two Varia Guardians, teleporting the three of them back to the place where they found the bloody prince.

...

* * *

"Now look at what you have done!"

"Hey, no need to scream that loud. It's not my fault... I had no idea that that guy with creepy laughs had actually followed me..."

"See? I told you that there are chances that he might be discovered!"

"You two, please calm down."

"Oh. Now you're telling_ us_ to calm down? He's already been discovered, for goodness sake! Now our covers will be blown!"

"But he did took care of that 'Prince the Ripper', didn't he?"

"And that guy won't be able to wake up in just one or two days. So there's no need to worry about that."

"So? One of them had already found out. That means they really _aren't_ easy to fool, just like what I had said!"

"What can I do about it? Boss ordered me to do this. There's no way I could disobey."

"Why you-"

"Quiet down."

"Ah, Boss."

"I have a feeling that this will be discovered sooner or later. Let it be."

"Boss, but our plan-"

"It's going to continue. But I think we must start the last part earlier than we planned..."

* * *

"What a mess." Fran spoke as the cloud of mist around him dispersed. "Creepy shaped knives everywhere, and blood all over the place... What a gory scene. Master will like this."

"Fran, this is not the time to talk about that one hell of an illusion master of yours." Mammon said. "We're here to look for clues. And do treat this seriously, or I'll hunt you down in your dreams."

"Hai hai, Roger Mammom-san." the young Mist replied as he pointed two finger at his head dramatically. "But seriously, this is so gory. Wonder if that self-proclaimed prince actually made a cut or two on that whoever who attacked him. It'll make things a lot easier. We can just use that thing that normal people use, what is that called again? Umm... oh that's right! 'Blood test'."

"Sure, we'll do that." the former Mist answered. "That is, if Bel really _did_ make a scratch on that guy."

"And after the test, why don't we get Taichou here to help out too?" Fran suggested. "After all, he's the Rain. It's his duty to wash away all these blood. Is it even 'royal'? As what that stupid senpai called it?"

"Fran-chan. Squ-chan _is_ 'the requiem rain that cleanses the battlefield and washes everything away', but that doesn't make him a cleaner!" Lussuria explained.

"Yup." Mammon agreed. "That's your job, Lussuria."

"Mou, Mammon-chan dara, you're so mean~"

"Hey, aren't we suppose to search the place? What's with all the chit-chatting?" Fran questioned as he made a small frown that is almost unnoticeable.

"Is it your place to say it?" Mammon questioned back, narrowing his eyes that are covered by his hood, so that no one could see them. "You're the one who started all this, so don't come complaining now, Fran."

"Maa maa, Mammon-chan dara, please calm down. Fran-chan too." Lussuria said as he raised both his hands slightly. "It should be fine to search _and_ talk at the same, right? Won't that make a better atmosphere?"

"No." Mammon shot Lussuria a death glare. "And I'm _not_ interested in anything of such. If you have the time to talk then hurry up and start searching!"

"Hai hai, Mammon-chan." Lussuria nodded. "What do you say if we remove all these knives first? Bel-chan will still be needing them once he recover. So why don't we do him a favour and help him get all these back to him?"

"Sure, why not?" Mammon agreed as he began using his illusioned tentacles to start plugging the knives out of the walls and floor. "Who knows? Maybe I can get him to pay me for doing this later."

"Mammon-san." Fran called out to the Mist Arcobaleno as he plugged out some knives himself too. "Please, stop being such a money-minded. Me thinks that Me is catching that habit quite a bit too."

"Good, then maybe you can take care of the Varia's finance problem too if I really died some day."

"Mammon-chan, don't curse yourself." Lussuria said. "It has already been a problem to Varia that Bel-chan is now in a coma, what will we do if another one of our members died?"

"Does it matter?" Mammon questioned. "You got Fran. He's a good illusionist. And during these days, with the teaching of both Rokudo Mukuro and me, he sure will have great improvement."

"But that doesn't mean that we could lose you. You're part of the famiglia, Mammon-chan."

"Thanks, Luss."

"Hey, Mammon-san."

"What is it, Fran?"

"Take a look at this." Fran said, pointing at the wall, the other hand pointing out a finger signaling Mammon to come closer. Mammon nodded as he floated towards the frog hat wearing kid. "What is it?"

"See?" Fran asked as he pulled out one of Bel's knives from the wall. "_This_ is the hole made by _this_ creepy shaped knife of senpai's." Fran explained as he raised the hand that was holding the knife and pointed a finger from the other hand at the hole made. It was a thin, straight line. "But here," Fran continued, pointing at another hole. This one is a small and round one instead. "there's a different hole. Which means, it doesn't belongs to senpai's knives, but-"

"The other guy!" Mammon interrupted before the younger Mist could complete his sentence.

"Bingo." Fran said in his monotone as he put a thumbs up.

"See? We really can find some clues here! Now let's keep looking out for more."

* * *

**A/N: Ya, and that's how this chpt comes to an end. **

**If anyone noticed, I tried to put in some Bel x Mammon and B26. But the problem is, I don't know which to choose, so it ended up like this...**

**If you're interested in having some Bel x Mammon/Fran moments in the story, please state down which pairing you want through the review.**

**Thanks again to people who read this, reviewed to this, etc. And once again, thank you so much to people who don't mind my lack of vocabulary words and failed english. I only just managed to pass ( by 4 marks ) this year too. *guilty***

**I originally planned to have someone with better english, like my sister, to help me write this. But... she's not much of a XS fan... she only reads XS fanfics because I _forced_ her to read them. Ya, I'm trying to help get more XS fans, cause I am one. And she's kind of busy these days... and she will be even more busy next year, studying for her High School exam. And so will I.**

**So please understand...**

**Reviews are always welcomed. Good or Bad ones, I'll accept them all.**


	14. New Discovery

**A/N: Merry late Christmas Minna!**

**Before all the author's note thingy, thank you Guest ( whoever you are... ) for the pancake. Even though I'm eating one right now... *^_^* Ushishi~**

**I'm sorry that I wasn't able to post this chpt earlier as a Christmas present to you all, but the reason is that I don't think I can complete it in within a few days time...**

**I was kindda sad that a promised Christmas present of an XS fic ( which I waited for half a year, which is godamn bloody long to me. ) was not released... But ****I'm happy that I actually got to read some new XS fics on Christmas ( even if they're not _that_ good... no offence... ), and so was one of my followed stories which I waited for, again, bloody who knows how long, but definitely shorter than half a year.**

******Did you guys all enjoy your Christmas and Boxing/Boxer Day? ( the day after Christmas, 26th December, where you open up all you Christmas present boxes. No pun involved. ) If not, hope this brings some joy to you! ( Even though it's a bit late... )**

******Disclaimer: KHR belongs to Amano sensei, and can anyone tell her how I wish that she could draw a picture of all the ukes _properly_ crossdress? _/ slapped_**

* * *

"Hey, you."

"You calling me?"

"Yes! Who else could I be calling _and_ that will answer this bloody transmitter that is in _your_ ear?"

"Whoops, sorry. Forgotten about that"

"Don't try to act dumb with me, you."

"Now now, don't need to be rude here. I have a name you know?"

"Whatever. Anyway, I didn't call you to talk about that."

"Then what do you want to say?"

"I'm gonna ask you..."

"Yes?"

"Why didn't you get rid of that 'Prince the Ripper' and make things easier?"

"Fu. You're asking me?"

"..."

"Boss ordered it. He got his reasons for doing things. Why don't you go ask him instead?"

"..."

"If you got nothing more to say, then I'm hanging up."

"Wait! Since I'm already asking _you_, can't _you_ just tell me the reason why?"

"Ummm. Well, it won't bite by telling you. The reason is... "

* * *

"So in the end, the holes on the wall is our best clue." Mammon concluded at his seat in front of the dinner table that evening. The Mist Arcobaleno was not counting his money like how he usually did. Instead, he's discussing about the search a few hours ago with Fran and Lussuria.

"We've already got the place blood-analyzed, we should be able to get the result by tomorrow morning." the Sun reported to their 'leader' of the group.

"That's great." Fran commented. Despite his monotone voice, he was actually glad that they could get the result the next day. And the reason is:

Getting result the next day = Getting result soon

Getting result soon = Finding the culprit soon

Finding the culprit soon = Getting 'revenge' for Belphegor/Varia soon + Doing something _gory_ soon ( and by gory, we mean something that _*children under the age of 12 should not witness* _)

"Buonasera, minna." the group turned their heads towards the door as a familiar feminine voice reached their ears.

"What is it? Gotten kicked out from Boss' office?" Fran asked with boredom as he rested his right cheek on his right palm. "Who's the one? Boss? Or Captain?"

"Well of course not, silly Fran-chan!" Meridionale waved her hand as she shrugged. "Is there any problem regarding I can't come down for dinner without Xanxus's accompany?"

"First," the younger Mist pointed out his index finger for emphasize. "_do not_ call Me 'Fran-chan'. Me had enough of hearing it from Luss." the boy eyed the gayloard at the mention of his name before he pointing out his middle finger too. "And secondly, _do not_ call Me 'silly'. Me is actually more smart than that self-proclaimed 'genius', you know?" another finger pointed out. "And thirdly, no there isn't. Me was just wondering, seeing you usually always stayed by our boss' side and never leaving him alone."

"Fufu. It's nothing to be wondering about. I just wanted to enjoy Lussuria's cooking today, as I missed it yesterday."

"Aww~ Meridionale-chan, so do you _really_ like my cooking?" Lussuria asked. The two Mist holder were sure that they could sence sparkles around the Sun Guardian.

"Of course I do! Why won't I?" the Fiancata Cloud answered without any sign of hesitation as she took her seat.

The illusionists mentally sweat-dropped as they witness the tears of joy behind that shades of the Varia Mama and that puppy dog look on his face.

"Hi" Squalo greeted as he took a seat beside Meridionale.

Everyone stared at the shark with a blank face in awkward silence, as if they just found out that penguins can fly.

"What are you all staring at me like that for?" the Rain asked, feeling uneasy with all the eyes ( including the ones that are being covered ) on him.

"Squalo," Mammon took the speaking role. "that's not your seat."

"That's senpai's." added Fran, who is currently sitting beside Squalo.

"Your seat is over here." Lussuria added as he pointed at the seat beside him.

"So?" the silverette shrugged as if nothing happened. "I feel like sitting here. No big deal."

"O... kay... " the three Varia members spoke in unison, as if they just failed trying to convince to the world that penguins cannot fly.

*PING*

The attention of the people were shifted to the door as they heard the sound of a broken wine glass. Blood comes into their vision first, then the person who is responsible for the blood, Xanxus. Then the owner of the blood, Levi, who had already passed out on the floor.

"Useless trash." Xanxus muttered as he strolled towards his seat before eyeing at his Rain Guardian.

"If it's about the seating arrangement again, I'll say it again that I feel like sitting here and if you don't have a problem with it, stick with it." Squalo answered without even looking at his boss.

Xanxus closed his eyes as he took his seat, trying to stop convincing himself that the shark _is_ avoiding him. Or else why didn't he sit at his usual seat beside him?

"Where's Bel?" the boss asked, trying not to think about that matter now and not seeing the childish, insane prince anywhere.

"Ha?!" the three members of the search group asked in unsion.

"You mean Taichou didn't inform you about it?" Fran asked in astonishment.

"No" Xanxus answered. The truth is that he didn't even see the shark the whole day, except that little moment when he saw him through the window before they left.

"Didn't you go report your mission after we came back?" Mammon asked the Rain Guardian.

"No" the shark answered, not really bothering about the whole thing.

"Then where did you go?" Lussuria asked. "If you're not with us outside the infirmary, and you're also not with Boss, then where were you?"

"I got my own buisness to take care of." Squalo answered. "You got a problem with that?"

The Sun Guardian shot the two Mist a look, as if asking them what to do before finally answering a "no".

"Umm, how about we just get on with the dinner?" Lussuria suggested. The Varia's Mama is not used to all these awkwardness in the room. It's already been a lot quieter without the insane prince around, bothering the hell out of everyone. But now, the usually loud commander of theirs is also being so unusually quiet, thus not giving their boss a reason to throw his wine glass at him. And further more, the said commander isn't reporting on his missions now? What in the world just happened?

"Sure." Mammon answered as he started eating, ignoring the others around him.

* * *

Dino Cavallone was sitting in his office, drifting in his own thoughts.

_It has been such a long time since Mammon sent the invitation over here._ The blonde haired done thought.

_I wonder if the Varia are doing well... I did a little research on that 'Fiancata Famiglia' that was mentioned in the letter, they seemed to have just started a few years ago, the current boss is only the first generation. Compared to the Vongola, they should be a lot less experienced, so how is that they could actually put up a fight with them?..._

The Cavallone Decimo got up from the sofa that he was lying lazily on and approached his desk. Dino sat down on his seat behind the desk and switched on his laptop to continue with his research which he had been doing for the past few days.

* * *

"_Repeat_ what you just said!" Mammon demanded as his face got darker.

"Hai. The result from the blood test is out." Lussuria reported as he reread what was written on the piece of paper in his hand for the _N_th time. "But it says that _all_ the blood belongs to Bel-chan! They didn't find _any_ different type of blood other than his."

"You gotta be kidding me!" the Mist Arcobaleno shouted. "The blood is all over the place! And you're telling me that there's no other people's among it? _All_ of them are Bel's?!"

"Let Me see it." Fran said as he took the paper from Lussuria and began reading it.

"There' no need for that." the Sun Guardian sighed. "I reread it for at least 10 times! How could there be any mistake?"

"Maybe this is a fake one! Or perhaps an illusion!..."

"Mammon-san, chill." the teal-haired boy said. "Me isn't sure if this is a fake or not, but it's definitely not an illusion. At least as far as Me know from what Shishou taught Me... And why would they even bother to make a fake one to fool us? What advantage would they get? So that's probably impossible too."

The hood-wearing infant shake slightly, shocked at the news.

"But how is _that_ possible?! The one he's against is _Bel_! _Bel_ for goodness sake! That insane prince who is godamn sensitive to blood! The genius of battle! 'Prince the Ripper'! How could _he_ not leave a _single_ drop of blood?!"

"This proves how strong the enemy is." Fran replied, finally taking his eyes off the paper which _he_ also read at least 10 times.

"Boss is probably helping us search for that guy too." Lussuria added. "Since we told him about what happened yesterday. And we'll have a higher chance of winning against that guy if we got Boss."

"Speaking of which, don't you think that there's something odd with Squ-Taichou?"

"Of course! Two days ago when I went to Boss' office to give him his dinner, he told me that Squ-chan didn't go report his mission! And yesterday it happened again!"

"We all know that he hates Meridionale more than all of us, but he chose to sit _beside_ her?"

"And _not_ with Boss?"

"Hmmmm" the three Guardians stared at one another, communicating their thoughts without words, and dispersed themselves, headding towards different directions.

* * *

**Buonasera = Good evening **

**A/N: I can't believe this is already the 14th chpt, and we're just getting started!**

**I originally thought that this story will end at around the 15th chpt, but now I guess not... Thanks to my short chpts...**

**Again, I apologize for the late Christmas present. **

**Please Read and Review!  
**


	15. Reality

**A/N: Hi, I'm back! Does anyone miss me? *looks around***

**Well, first thing's first, HAPPY NEW YEAR minna! **

***Get Gokudera to throw dynamites into the sky.* **

_**Yamamoto: "Haha, I always knew that those were fireworks."**_

_**Gokudera: "What the hell, you Baseball Idiot... Oi, stupid woman, why did you even get me to do this anyway?"  
**_

**_Me: "It's a new year! And all of us are happy that the rumour of the world gonna end in 2012 is not true, right?"_  
**

**Arigatou iNeedFanfiction for pointing out the mistake in the previous chpt! *pass out cookies* **

**And FallenxLinkin, when you say "The blood thing is really disturbing", do you mean that the keep blood here blood there kind of disturbing or the blood very gory kind of disturbing? I've been thinking about it since the day it was posted...**

**And before we get on with the story, **

**Notification: From next week onwards, this story will be a monthly update instead of a weekly one. Because school is starting and life is gonna get busy! I haven't decided on an actual date for the update though, I think should be around the 20ths.**

**Now, let's get on with the story...**

**Disclaimer: Everybody should know this by now, I don't own KHR.**

* * *

It has been six days since Bel was sent into the infirmary. The Varia Mansion had been getting quieter and quieter lately. As if no one lives there.

Now that's rare for the Vongola's independent assassin squad, as it was usually filled with noise and chaos. Either the sound of knifes being thrown on a certain frog's hat, of the sound of wine glass thrown at a certain shark's head. Sometimes with the creepy laugh of "Ushishishi", sometimes with the shouting of "VOIIIIIIIII", or even the sound of gun shots followed by explosions.

So you can see that why the great boss of Varia, Xanxus, is getting irritated.

_Where the fuck did all those scums go? Are they dead? Stupid scums, don't die and leave all the assignments piling up in here! At least finish them and get this place cleared up before you die, or I kill you myself! _( Dude, they're already dead! What are you gonna do? Murder their corpses? )

Well, the assignments and paper works were not the only problem here, without the shark, Xanxus just cannot rant out his frustration. So whenever a subordinate came in, he'll just throw a wine glass a him and fire one of his X-guns at the wall 2 inches beside him. And of course, 90% of them landed on the stupid retarded Thunder Guardian.

_How stupid, that idiotic trash. Cannot even sence that the atmosphere is not right. Is he really Varia quality? Why did we even let him be a guardian in the first place?_

_Speaking of which, where did that annoying bitch go? What happened to all the sticking to me wherever I go? Ha, guess she isn't so-  
_

"Dear, I'm back!"

_Screw that._

"Miss me?" Meridionale asked as she pulled one of her smiles, a very bright one.

"Why would I?" Xanxus asked.

"Because I'm your wife?"

"How many times must I make it clear that we're. not. fucking. married. yet?" Xanxus said as he got irritated.

"Well, and _I_ told _you_ that we're going to get married soon!" the smile on her face just seems to get brighter. "And in fact, we're going to have our wedding next Friday!"

"WHAT?!" Xanxus stood up from his seat as he slammed the table with both hands. "Since when is it even planned?"

"Since 2 hours ago." the Cloud answered. "I just got approvement from the Ninth and onii-sama."

_Oh for hell's sake, this sucks._

"I look forward to 5 days time!" Meridionale smiled again as she waved goodbye. "Fufufu~"_  
_

Xanxus stared as she closed the door before sitting back in his seat and covering his face with both hands.

_My life sucks..._

"Boss" _  
_

Xanxus removed his hands from his face as he heard that familiar voice.

_Bad timing._

"You've heard that, haven't you?" Xanxus asked the silverette at the door.

"Yes, Boss." Squalo answered with a nod.

"Sorry"

"Hm?" the shark wasn't able to catch what his boss just said as it was spoken so softly. "What is it that you said?"

"I said I'm sorry." the boss repeated, louder this time so that the shark can hear.

"Why are you apologizing?" the Rain Guardian asked in confusion.

"About what happened that day." Xanxus answered, trying not to bring the details up in case it anger the shark more. "Aren't you mad about that? Aren't you avoiding me? I can see that within all these days."

"Boss, I-"

"Ushishishi"

A familiar laugh was heard, followed by a familiar knife sent towards Squalo's direction. The Rain, in return, sent another object in it's direction, shattering the knife before landing on the wall.

"What the-" the boss was stunned. That object... it wasn't an explosive from the shark's sword, which he now then notice that the Rain Guardian didn't have it with him, but a...

diamond?

"What's the meaning of this?" the boss questioned.

"Ushishishi, getting proof." Bel answered. The prince was still covered with bandages, like the time after Storm Battle. Lussuria suggested he stay in bed longer but gave up because the Storm threatened him with his knifes.

Mammon did the honour of removing the diamond from the wall.

"This," the Mist pointed at the hole made on the wall. "is _exactly_ the same as the ones at the place we found Bel." he said as he revealed a picture they took at scene of the crime.

"Squ-chan," Lussuria spoke, glaring the shark. "Bel-chan already told us, _you_'re the one who attacked him!"

"Ushishishi." Bel showed his Cheshire grin. "That night when you came back from your mission, I noticed that something was off. Because I'm a genius. And not to mention, a Prince! Ushishishishishi~."

"Bel-senpai, stop dragging, just explain it directly." Fran said.

*Stab Stab*

"Ushishi. The Prince is talking here, Froggy. Do _not_ disturb! If you miss the Prince's stabbing for one week, then the generous me will enjoy my time stabbing you later after we're done with this." Bel said, turning back to Squalo. "So the next day, I followed you for your mission. But when I reach there, your victims were already dead."

"Lussuria checked the place. This is the picture we took there." Mammon said as he took out another photo. This one shows small holes that formed the outer shapes of three human body on a wall. The holes were the same as the other ones in the first picture.

"And that was when I got attacked," the Storm continued with his speech. "by you!"

"Bel-chan told us that you didn't use your sword to attack." the Sun Guardian took the role of speaking. "Instead, you use this." he said as he took the diamond from Mammon's hand and showed it in front of the Rain Guardian.

"Because you both were long-distance combatter, it shouldn't be hard for you to fight Bel into this place." Mammon explained, showing the first picture.

"Diamonds were the hardest substance known by men." Fran explained. "This should be able to prove enough that why you can beat the crap out of Senpai." he said, pointing at the shattered pieces of the knife on the floor.

"That's right. You broke my knifes with you diamonds. And use them to attack me, leaving me to this state." Bel said, pointing at himself for emphasize.

"Who in the world are you?" Mammon questioned the Rain Guardian.

Everyone in the room stared at the silverette, waiting for him to give his answer.

"Hmph." the shark closed his eyes. "That's right. I am not Superbi Squalo."

"Then _who_ are you?" the Storm Guardian asked again, with a more threatening tone this time as he pulled his knifes out.

"You want to know who I am?" he chuckled. "There's no point of you knowing that."

Without warning, he sent three diamonds at Bel's direction, shattering his knifes once again.

"Why, you godamn piece of crap peasant." the prince growled as he sent another set of knifes at the guy, who appeared to be Squalo's, direction, who dodged them with ease.

"Prince the Ripper," he spoke. "by now you should understand, that there's no way you can win against me."

"Don't mess with us." the Mist Arcobaleno said as he made an illusion of clones, surrounding the shark.

"I'll make you suffer." the clones said in unison as they each created tentacles from under the hood, attacking the Rain.

But the guy reacted faster, he sent his diamonds towards the tentacles' direction before they reach him and broke them, the only things left were pieces of paper for the illusion.

"Don't you think it wouldn't be very fair if you all attack me at once?" he asked as he dodged an incoming punch from the Sun.

"In battles, we don't talk about fairness." Bel answered as he sent another set of knives at him, which just ended up being shattered into pieces, again.

"Then I guess it won't be good for me to stay here any longer." the guy said as he lighted his Rain Varia Ring but didn't punch it into the Varia Box. Instead, he took out a different Box from his pocket and punched the blue flame into it and pointed it at the window, letting out a rain flame covered whale.

"See you guys not-so-soon." the guy in Squalo skin and voice said as he jumped onto his Box Animal's back after breaking the window. "Ciao ciao!"

"Wait! What have you done with Squalo?" Xanxus called out in futile as the guy already left.

"Boss." the group of Guardians said at the same time as they turned to face their boss.

"What in the world just happened?" Xanxus asked his Guardians. "Since when did all these happened?"

"Boss, I only noticed the oddness in Squalo's behaviour since that night when he came back after his mission." Bel replied.

"Which night is it?"

"That night when you, him, and Meridionale didn't come down for dinner."

_That day when I sent the bitch and them out for a mission together? _Xanxus thought. _That means the same day as... that kiss..._

"The rest of us figured that out later during the day after Bel-chan was attacked." Lussuria reported. "And that's why we separated ourselves, searching for clues to both Bel-chan and Squ-chan's incidents."

"And that's when we found these." Fran said, pointing at the two photos in Mammon's hands.

"So it probably happened on that mission." Mammon concluded.

"But another problem we discovered is," the Varia Mama said. "that all the victims were killed. And through my experience of seeing Squ-chan's victims, the wounds on them just don't seem to be made by him."

"So who could be the one?"

...

* * *

**A/N: Once again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!  
**

**Tomorrow school is gonna start and my mum is already very annoyed with me keep updating on this story. So please wait patiently for the next chpt.  
**

***Don't worry, I always keep to my words!  
**

**Thank you to people who liked this story until now!  
**

**R & R please!  
**


	16. Mission 4: Wolf Hunting

**A/N: Hi guys! ( Or girls... )**

**Did I left you waiting for long? Well, like I said, when school starts, we won't be as free as we used to be...**

**And I think I left a pretty good cliff hanger for the previous chpt, maybe some of you were godamn curious for this one because of it.**

**I know that my characters are getting more and more OOC, but somehow... I just keep imagining them like this in fanfics... **

**Who even set something like this? Neither the manga or anime said that Bel calls Fran 'Froggy', just 'Frog'/'Toad', and it's only said once! And it's not stated that Lussuria is the cook either! But why is it so easy to imagine him in a pink apron? And Xanxus didn't really threw a lot of wine glass at Squalo's head... just the night after the Storm Battle when Squalo reported to him that Bel won... And we pretty much guessed that he also threw other stuffs from what we knew from Haru's Haru Haru Interview Dangerous! when Squalo recapped his 'stress' from all the pulling hair, coffee thrown on head and vase along with roses and water thrown on head by his boss. And don't forget that time when Xanxus threw a rock at Squalo in the future too... T^T 555~ My poor Squ-chan~~~  
**

**Nevermind... I'm getting off topic here, so let's just start before I started ranting again... And hell knows when are we gonna start? Anyway, let's just start...  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own KHR, Vongola or Varia.**

* * *

"So who could be the one?" Xanxus asked as he ran his hand through his hair to release some tension .

"Xanxus!" the door burst open, revealing a blonde on a white horse.

_Not now..._

"What do you want, Bucking horse?" the boss of Varia asked as he shot a death glare at the Cavallone Tenth. Now isn't really a good time for people from other famiglias to come and butt into his Varia businesses. Especially this guy in front of him is the 'older brother' of Sawada Tsunayoshi, that middle schooler whom he hated so freaking much.

"What was going on?" Dino asked. His usual self would have fallen off from Scuderia for his clumsiness and fear from Xanxus's glare, but now isn't really the time for that. "There's a rain-classed whale outside that I'm sure that _none of you_ owns. And that guy on it... is that_ Squalo_?"

The room felt silent. No one really wants to bring up that topic. Especially after how easily beaten up they were by that guy.

"What's the matter with you all?" Dino asked, seeing that nobody is answering his question. "Come on, just say. Is that _really_ Squalo?"

"So what if it really is him?" Mammon asked, getting annoyed by Dino's question.

"I... I don't believe this..." the bucking horse mumbled. "Since when did Squalo owned a whale Box Animal?"

The members of the Varia all literally facepalmed at Dame-Tsuna's also dame brother's innocence. All except for their great boss who didn't want to embarrass himself in front of the others.

"So what?" he spat. "It's not as if it's any of _your_ business."

"...Nevermind about that now," Dino said. "I have something more important to tell you guys."

"What?" all the Varia Guardians asked at once.

"I researched on the Fiancate Famiglia," the blonde answered as he handed the Varia Boss a piece of paper. "and I gathered all the information I found. I thought this might be somehow useful to you."

Xanxus glanced through the paper, not really paying any attention to most of the information on it, and abruptly stopped at one spot which attracted his attention, he hurry up and read that part once more.

"So he's the one behind this..." Xanxus mumbled, more to himself than to the others.

"Ha? What did you just say Xanxus?" the Cavallone Decimo asked as he leaned closer to Xanxus and placed a hand behind his ear, intending to listen carefully to what he's going to say.

*PANG*

"Nothing." the raven answered after smacking the idiot Bucking Horse on the back of his head and keeping the paper in a drawer of his desk.

...

* * *

-The Next Day-

A cloud if indigo mist appeared in Xanxus's office, which dispersed and revealed a hooded infant.

Mammon.

"Yare yare. Can't believe _I_ have to do such things..."

With the help of the yellow ouroboros on top of his head, he floated towards the desk drawer and took out a piece of paper from inside it.

The one that Dino sent here.

"Mission completed." the words fell out as the infant was once again covered with indigo mist that vanished into thin air.

* * *

"Monta," a certain blond-haired Prince asked lazily on the sofa. "you got what the Prince wants?"

"Ya" Mammon answered as he handed Bel the paper. "If it's not for the payment you promised to give me, I won't even be allowing you to call me that name. Now, when are you going to give it to me?"

"Ushishishi. Maybe a year later or two." the blonde laughed as his eyes scanned through the paper under his long bangs.

"Bel... you little brat." the Mist Arcobaleno said under his breath as his blue tentacles started appearing from under his coat. "Don't be too cheeky with me."

*PING*

"Ushishishi~" the Storm laughed after throwing a knife at the tentacle, breaking it at the same time. "Monta, don't push your luck. You know very well that you're no match for the Prince. Ushishishishi~"

"You dare look down on me? I'll let you see hell tonight in your dream."

"Ushishi. The Prince dares you." Bel just laughed at Mammon's threat, not really caring about it. "Hey, Froggy." Bel said as he threw another knife, at Fran's giant frog hat this time.

"Yes Senpai?" the teal-coloured hair boy asked as he pulled out the knife and returned it to his senpai. Since Bel was still recovering, Fran thought he'll do him a favour by not bending his knives and threw it away.

"Come and check this out." the Storm said as he pointed to a part of the paper. Fran got himself up from the floor he was sitting on and leaned closer to the paper in the Prince's hand, and was stunned.

_Name: Lacrimare_

_Title: Fiancate Rain Guardian  
_

_Gender: Male  
_

_Age: 22  
_

_Flame: Rain  
_

_Box Animal: Balena Della Pioggia, Whale of the Rain  
_

_Weapon: Diamonds_

"Guess we found out who is our wolf under the sheep coat, huh?" _  
_

"Yup, and the Prince thinks he knows just the way to take care of that wolf. Ushishishishi~"

* * *

"Fufufu. Welcome, my dear brother-in-law!" Settentrionale said as he opened the door to let the Varia Boss enter. "Would you like some tea? Or maybe you prefer coffee? By the way, what brings you here? Is it because of Meridionale? Well, isn't she such a good girl? Do you know how honoured I am for having such-"

"Shut up, I'm not here for useless chatting." Xanxus cut in before the Fiancata Sky could finish speaking. "I'm here to look for that damn Rain Guardian of yours."

"You mean Lacrimare?" the boss of Fiancata asked. "My apology, my dear brother-in-law. But the person you're looking for is currently out on a mission I assigned him. Would you like to stay here for a while until he comes back?"

"No need for that." Xanxus rejected his offer. "Just tell me where is the mission's site."

"My second apology. But I don't think I can tell other people about information of the missions I assigned personally to my Guardians." Settentrionale apologized once again.

Regardless of the other's apology, the boss of Varia still tugged him towards himself by his collar roughly.

"You dare to disobey me?" the raven threatened as his free hand raised to reveal a ball of orange flame appearing on it.

*PING*

A few strands of Xanxus's hair on his right side was cut. The Flame of Rage on his hand also vanished. He looked up from Settentrionale to see a silver 6 pointed ninja star stuck on the wall, a few inches away from the Fiancata Sky.

"Hands off him." a little kid's voice was heard, but it's not very soft. Instead, it's amazingly deep. Xanxus turned around to see the Fiancata Thunder brat standing behind him. In his hand, there's a little doll, shaped like Xanxus himself.

"And what makes you think I'm going to listen to you?" Xanxus questioned, eyes glancing at the doll in his hand.

"This isn't your Varia. You have no right to be disrespectful to our boss." Baleno answered, poking the doll's stomach.

"Maybe if you ask your dear boss to obey me, I'll let him off." the raven smirked, expecting the brat to follow his order.

"My boss already made it very clear, he don't tell _anyone_ regarding his Guardian's missions." the blonde-haired kid replied. "Not even his other Guardians."

"Xanxus-kun." Settentrionale responded. "We are going to be family in a few days time. It really isn't the time to cause unneccessary arguments. Besides, Lacrimare's mission is very mobility. I can't be sure of his current site either. But one thing I can tell you is that he's still in Italy, that's the only thing I'm sure of."

Xanxus immediately threw the Fiancata Sky against the wall and took out both his X-guns, firing one below him and another one above him, breaking the ceiling before launching himself into flight.

"Looks like we're going to pay extra money for the repairmen of the ceiling, huh." Baleno commented as he continue pinching the doll's cheek.

* * *

"Ushishishishi." a familiar laugh was heard in a supposingly locked room filled with darkness and chilliness. "Aren't Froggy just honoured that he gets to go on this mission along with the Prince?"

"No, not at all, Senpai." a monotone voice answered. "Besides, if it wasn't for Me's teleportation, you won't even be here."

"Ushishi. Who ask Monta to reject the Prince's offer?"

"You are the one who refused to pay him first."

"Well, at least he did his job in helping us find this place."

"Me never thought that the process of thoughtography is actually so disgusting... As expected from a baby."

"Ushishi. Now then you know. As expected from a froggy."

"Okay, quit it, Senpai. We got more important thing to do here." the boy with the monotone said as he pointed to a lifeless body on the floor.

"Ushishi. Yup, we got to get the wolf out from the sheep coat."

A red, little light was seen in the darkness of the room, showing a Cheshire grin from a guy with bangs long enough to cover his eyes. The guy took out a little box and punched the source of light into it. The box opened, letting out a wave of red coloured flame, landing on the Cheshire Cat's shoulder.

"Ushishishi~"

* * *

**Thoughtograph = Mammon's ability to locate any person by sneezing into a piece of paper; the spit or mucus that sticks to the paper shows a map leading to the desired person.  
**

**A/N: To those who were busy yet still waiting restlessly for this chpt ( like the me now ), I'm sorry to disturb you from you homework or whatever you were in the middle of doing... To those who were bored to death yet also waiting restlessly for this chpt ( like the holiday ver me ), I'm sorry that I kept you waiting for so long...**

**Guess all of you are pretty busy these days huh? I don't see many of my Favourited/Alearted stories being updated these days. Especially when a few of them were usually updated almost on daily basis!  
**

**And to those people who already read my stories, I'm sure you can see that I gave all my chpts names by now.  
**

**I know I took a lot of time on this, sorry... School really is taking up a lot of my time, since now that I'm 15...  
**

**I do hope you guys will still support this story even if it tooks a long time to update!  
**

**Reviews are still welcomed! Do drop by one!  
**


	17. The Captain is back

**A/N: IT'S HERE!**

**IT'S SUPER-LATE VALENTINE DAY PRESENT TIME!**

**Okay, so now my Doc Manager is flooded with chpts to this story, guess it's time that it deletes some on itself...**

**I know maybe quite a number of readers out there is wondering why I just gave out the answer to who is the 'wolf' so easily. Well... because I thought that it'll not be fun anymore if I keep on making things complicated and making you thinking who the hell it is like crazy. By the way, hope you guys understand the whole 'wolf under the sheep coat' thing...**

**Addition: If you guys got problem understanding who is who, you better go check chpt 3, _"Fiancata Famiglia"_, cause the Fiancata Guardians will sooner or later appear in the story. Which I still had no idea how many chpts there might be...**

**And now, let's just continue with the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own KHR and I don't think I will even have to time to own it.**

* * *

-Somewhere in a Forest-

"Urgh!" 'Squalo' winced in the pain all over his body.

_What happened? Those Varias didn't even get a chance to leave any injury on me. Why am I feeling all this pain?_

"Argh!" he screamed as he knelt down on the floor. His body is feeling so warm on the inside, as if it was on fire.

"Don't tell me they found it?" he asked the girl sitting beside him.

"But that's not possible! We used the special security system to make sure it's completely safe." she answered with complete confidence.

"Well, this is the only reasonable explanation we got for this." he said, trying very hard to support himself on the ground. "The thing is, I better go back first. If not, I'll die."

"I'll help you 'take care' of this body then."

"If I didn't come back, you know what to do." the guy instructed as he left, leaving the silverette's body lying lifelessly on the ground.

* * *

-Back to Bel and Fran-

Two black eyes popped opened, witnessing the sea of red coloured Storm flames in the room.

"Urgh!" he winced again at the pain. His body is burned all over by the Storm attribute disintegration, blood flowed out like water, non-stopping.

"Ushishishi~"

_This laugh! _His black eyes widened in realisation. He turned his head towards the laugh, it was a snow-coloured mink, sitting on a blonde's shoulder, grinning the same Cheshire grin as its ower.

"Ushishishi." the blonde laughed. "Looks like we succeeded in luring the wolf out."

"Hmph. I knew it was you." Lacrimare forced an evil grin at the prince. "Prince the Ripper."

"Me is here too!" a giant frog head appeared from behind Bel's back and waved at the blue-haired guy.

"Well, since now that I'm here, why don't you two bother explaining to me how you found me out." the Fiancata Rain panted as he forced himself to stand up on his feet with the help of the wall but failed.

"Ushishi, because I'm a geni-"

"Well, first we got this list of data from the Bucking Horse," Fran answered as he waved the piece of paper he got from Bel earlier around, emphasizing on what he mean. "and then for some reason, this self-proclaimed Prince asked Mammon-san to track down on where you are. And we used Me's teleportation to reach here. So don't bother wondering why we entered so easily with your stupid security."

*PANG*

"There's no need to explain to peasants on how we succeeded, Froggy." Bel scolded after smacking his kouhai in the head.

"Senpai, itai desu."

"Ushishi. The Prince knows. Now shut up, uncute-kouhai."

"Hm, now that I know how you came in here, how about telling me now that why did you know about what I did with your commander?"

"Ushishishi~. Dade ore ouji damon!" Bel laughed with pride. "And your acting skills really are poor if you don't even know how to 'Voi' when possessing Squalo."

"So this guy is_ possessing_ Commander, Senpai?" Fran asked as he slightly twitched his brow.

"Bingo, Froggy." the Storm answered. "Ushishi. Since the Prince's job here is done, he'll be taking his leave then." Bel said to the Rain.

"Are you really sure you want to just leave me here like this?" Lacrimare asked as he spitted out a little blood. "After all, you might not be _really_ done with your work."

"Save your breath." Fran answered. "With your current condition, there's no way you're not going to survive through this. And don't try using your Box Animals, Bel-senpai and Me had already confiscated them." the teal-haired illusionist pulled out two Rain attribute Boxes from his pocket to proof his words.

"Quit chatting with peasants, Froggy. We still got other work to do." Bel ordered as he threw a knife towards Fran's hat.

"Hai~, Senpai." Fran replied. "Hell awaits you, my friend." the Mist said to the dying Rain before teleporting Bel and himself out of the room filled with Storm flame.

*Cough Cough* "Don't be so sure about that, little Fran." Lacrimare said as he coughed out more blood. "I'm n- urgh! Not going to die so- easily!" he said before reluctantly closing his eyes, passing out.

* * *

"Fufu" a feminine laughter was heard along with footsteps enclosing towards the passed out shark. The female figure bent down to stroke the long silver hair of the Rain.

_See? Didn't I told you that we'll be a lot closer soon? Now that Lacrimare isn't coming back, let's start with the second part of our plan, shall we? ...  
_

* * *

"Luss, Mammon, we're back." Bel and Fran shouted simultaneously when they were back in the Varia Mansion.

"Bel-chan! Fran-chan!" Lussuria screamed as he made an attempt to hug the returning pair but was instead stabbed by one of Bel's knife.

"Don't you dare touch the Prince and his froggy, peasant." Bel warned.

"Some over-protective owner aren't you, Bel." Mammon asked as he rested on the blonde's shoulder.

"Shut up."

"Is Bossu back yet?" Fran asked.

"He's back." Mammon answered. "Still can't believe that he actually go find Settentrionale for answer."

"Boss will loss his mind when things like this happens." Lussuria said. "He doesn't really put much thought to it and will just react on instinct."

"We know about his beast side, all of us here got that side in us." Mammon added. "By the way, did you guys complete your mission?"

"Ushishishi. Do you think the Prince will fail on such a simple mission like this?" the blonde laughed.

"Me-tachi won't even be back in one piece if we failed." Fran supported the Prince's sentence.

"How about your side, Monta?" the Storm asked the former Mist Guardian. "Any luck on tracking down Sharky's location?"

"No" the Mist Arcobaleno replied. "Those bastards, they seemed to have set some kind of barrier around Squalo's body, causing me unable to track down on him."

"Who knows, now that we got that guy out of Taichou's body, he might be able to come back on his own." Fran stated. "After all, he's not a baby. He would probably even burned down the whole place! Is there really a need for us to worry about this?"

"But Fran-chan, no matter how you say it, we still must-"

"VOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII II ! YOU BRATS HAVE ENOUGH OF YOUR PLAY TIME?"

"Okay, maybe not." the Sun Guardian mumbled under his breath.

"Welcome back, loud-mouthed Taichou!" the Frog-hat-wearing boy greeted his commander in his monotone.

"Did any of you brats slack when I'm not around checking on you?" Squalo questioned his officers.

"Of course not, Commander." the youngest member answered. "Or else how could you be standing right in front of us now?"

"Squ-chan! Welcome back!" Lussuria said as he hugged the shark from the back.

"VOI! Let go of me, Lussuria!" the Rain Guardian screamed as he struggled his way out of the flamboyant's grip.

"By the way Squalo, what exactly happened on your mission?" Mammon asked. "How did that bastard ended up in your body?"

"Well, it all started when-"

"Ciaossu, Squalo!" a voice interupted the shark's speech half-way through.

"VOI! Can't you see people are talking here?" Squalo shouted at Meridionale. "What the fuck do you want?"

"Just announcing my happiness to you all," the Fiancata Cloud replied with her usual smile on her face. "Xanxus and I are getting married in two days time."

"WHAT?!" the whole group of people shouted together.

"Since when is it even settled?"

"Boss never told us anything of such."

"Are you sure?"

"Don't joke with us."

"If you're fooling with us, you're dead!"

"Fufu. I knew that my dear Xanxus will never announce this to you, so I thought that I'll just do it personally." the raven-haired girl replied. "The Ninth and my dear Onii-sama arranged it. I'm the one who asked them for permission two days ago. If you guys chose not to believe me, you can go check with the Ninth about it yourself."

The members just shot death glares at her while cursing under their breath. They all had totally forgotten about the wedding. After all, that's the reason the girl is living with them now. How could they have forgotten? And now, they just finished with Squalo's business and got another headache thing to settle. But at least the problems from the girl won't caused them too much trouble, they're more towards the boss. But think again, when Boss isn't in a good mood, they also must suffer along with him. And that'll will suck even more...

"Luss-nee-chan. The Ninth said that you've already agreed to help with the preparations before I even moved in here, is it true?" the girl asked the Mother of Varia, with sparkles in her baby blue eyes.

"Of course, my dear!" Lussuria screamed, too happy from being called "Nee-chan" by someone, who is actually happy that he's helping with the preparation.

"Arigatou, Nee-sama!" Meridionale squealed with happiness as she hugged the Varia's Sun Guardian, making him feel more like a good, responsible mother. Or rather, sister.

"Oi oi, Luss. Don't get too over with yourself so easily." said the Storm Guardian after the Cloud girl left.

"So Squalo, what were you saying before thi-" the ex Mist Guardian of Varia asked the shark until he noticed that his interlocutor is no longer there. "Yare yare, now where did he go?"

* * *

"Voi, Boss." the familiar voice was heard once again at the door to Xanxus's office.

A 'click' sound was heard, followed by a ball of orange fame charging towards the Rain Guardian, who ducked just in time before he got burned into ashes.

"VOI! What is wrong with you?" Squalo shouted at his boss who sat in his seat behind the desk.

"After all those things that happened, I'm still not fully trusting you as the real shark trash." Xanxus said as he took out one of his X-gun and started charging it with his Flame of Wrath.

"VOI! Is that the kind of greeting you should give to someone who just got back home, you shitty Boss?"

"You always went on missions that took you forever to come back, and I've always treated you like this. So what's wrong with doing it now?"

"At least those were just wine glasses and kicks! Nothing this serious! Do you want me dead?"

"If you cannot prove to me that you're my shark trash, then YES." the scarred-man said as he shot at the guy who was suppose to be his Right-Hand Man. Squalo once again dodged the attack and used his Rain Flame to put out the Sky-class flame.

"Just by shouting 'Voi' and using Rain flame isn't enough to convince me." the ravenette said as he continued lounging attacks towards the shark.

"VOI! THAT'S ENOUGH, YOU SHITTY BOSS! WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT ME TO DO TO MAKE YOU BE CONVINCED?!" the silverette shouted as he took out his sword and swung it, causing the mini-bombs inside to shot towards Xanxus.

The great boss of Varia dodged them with ease, but the smokes still prevented him from seeing his surroundings. Not knowing where his target is, the Sky just shot randomly in different directions. Even if they don't hit the target, they'll still caused the smokes to disperse.

*PING*

The sound of metals clashing was heard. Xanxus turned towards his right and saw the Rain.

"There you are, piece of trash." he groaned. But before he could point his gun at Squalo, he felt his right hand numbed.

_This technique... _Xanxus thought as he glanced at the silverette._ Attacco di Squalo._

"So you really are Squalo?"

"I've told you already! I AM!"

Xanxus felt silent. The gun in his hand fell onto the ground with a sound of thud, neglected. The Sky just wrapped his arms around the shark and pulled him close.

"I missed you."

Squalo just grinned and patted his boss on the back.

"Shitty Boss..."

* * *

**A/N: Yup, once again, another new chpt completed! Still got a long way to go before it ends so don't get bored now!  
**

**3 more weeks and it's holiday time! YAY! **

**But sad thing is that it only lasts for a week. -_-**

**Once again, HAPPY LATE VALENTINES DAY!**

**R & R please!**


	18. The day before the Wedding

**A/N: HI! It feels as if it's been a long time. **

**Well, it actually ****_is_****, kind of. But it's just another month!**

**And I bet you all know what day today is, so I thought I'll be giving you guys a present!**

**So here it is, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not KHR. Not Varia. Not Xanxus. Not Squalo. Only the plot is mine.**

* * *

"I can't believe I'm doing this _for the second time_, WITHOUT ANY PAYMENT!" a certain greedy baby that we're all too familiar with protested as he threw his just-finished invitation in the Sun Guardian's face.

"Ow! Mammon-chan, don't take your anger out on _me_!" Lussuria pouted as he removed the envelope from his face and put it inside the bag along with the rest of the invitations that the Varias spent the whole morning making.

"I don't give a damn, Lussuria!" Mammon shouted. "This isn't even worth my time! Why do I have to waste my effort doing something that's not earning me a single cents?"

"Mammon-san, chill down." the teal-haired boy said expression-less. "We also don't have much of a choice. The wedding is tomorrow, and both Senpai and Taichou were busy with other stuff. So that only left us to take care of all this invitations. We're already generous enough to let the gaylord send them this time instead of you."

"But why am _I_ here too?" the Varia's self-proclaimed 'Mama' asked. "Meridionale-chan is still counting on me to help with the decorations! Why am I here helping you guys delivering all these invitations?"

"Knowing your style, Bossu had specially assigned you to help us because he know that you're going to make the place all gayish if you're in charge of decorating." Fran answered as he threw his folded-airplane-invitation into the bag in the Sun's hand.

"Mou, Fran-chan. Don't play with the invitations like that!" Lussuria said as he unfold the invitation back to its original shape.

"Why? We'll just play with it all we want." Mammon replied with a slight smirk on his face. "After all, we're the ones who made them, we'll have as much fun as we want." he said as he set the bag on fire.

"WAH! Mammon-chan, what are you doing?" Lussuria screamed as he felt the sudden warmth in his hand and dropped the bag onto the ground. "We're suppose to deliver all those! Now we must re-do everything! NOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Calm down, Luss." Fran said lazily with his cheek on his palm. "That bag was just an illusion. The real one is here." he pulled out an identical bag from under the table, with all the invitations inside. "Now, since you said that we're suppose to deliver all these, hurry up and do it. Make yourself useful." the frog said as he threw the bag to the Sun.

"Ooft. Mou, I got it. I'll be on my way then." Lussuria pouted once again as he began to make his leave.

* * *

The Varia's genius, Belphegor, was in a certain Fiancata Cloud's room, with an assignment from his boss.

"Tch, how boring." the Prince mumbled as he twirled a pair of scissors on his fingers. "Giving the Prince such low-class work. Boss really had underestimate me."

Prince the Ripper tossed the scissors aside and pulled out his knives.

"Ushishishi. Now let's see how the Prince is going to make you turn into his master piece." the Storm grinned at his 'opponent'.

Wires were set up in the room, the 'opponent' is now surrounded by countless knives attached to the wires. There's no way of escaping.

"Ushishishi~" the Prince laughed as he signalled the knives to attack at once. The sound of fabric being cut was heard. Pieces of scraps were left on the floor.

But no blood were produced.

"Ushishi. Done!" Bel grinned at his master piece. He pulled the dress down from the hanger and examined it carefully. The dress is pure white, cloth flowers adorning the chest, with ribbons at the waist and very frilly.

"Once again, a master piece made in the hands of the Prince. Ushishishishishi~"

* * *

The Rain Guardian of Varia jumped down from the flight of stairs as he finished putting up the banners and streamers. The wedding is said to be held in the Varia Headquarter. Mercy from the Ninth.

The place is now as white as the snow in winter. A complete contrast of the originally creepy raven-dark mansion of Varia. Can see that the Strategic Commander had indeed put in a lot of effort into it. Not even neglecting to prepare the red and white roses for the rooms. Petals of blood-red as well as snow-white, were flowing along with the wind, brightening up the atmosphere in the room.

_Finally, I think it's don-_

"Shark trash, my office, NOW." the voice of the boss sounded in the shark's wireless.

_Oh great, such a nice timing... _Squalo thought sarcastically as he made his way to the boss' office, ready to deal with all the shit that the boss was going to throw at him before the next day arrives.

* * *

-The next day-

"Nee, Reborn..." Tsuna uttered to the fedora hat-wearing infant sitting next to him in the Vongola's private plane.

"Hm, yes Dame-Tsuna?" the infant with the yellow pacifier on his neck responded as he look up from his espresso.

"You planned this beforehand, didn't you?" the Tenth Boss of Vongola asked as he secretly eyed his tutor with the accusing glare.

"Hm, what do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb with me! Lussuria only sent the invitation over here today! And by the time I opened my mailbox, everyone is gathering outside my house already even before I got a chance to open the letter! Not to mention that the Vongola private plane came as soon as I finished reading through it! You obviously know about this and planned it long time ahead right?" was Tsuna's overly agitated reply as he swung his arms around while still holding the letter in one hand.

"Well, of course." despite Tsuna's words, Reborn still gave his answer in his usual calmness and smirk. "I'm not the world's strongest hitman for no reason."

"But why must we go?" Tsuna whined as he fell back into his seat. "This is not a problem anymore, isn't it? So what's the point of having us to take part here? Besides, Xanxus will kill me if he sees me there!"

"Clam down, my dame-student. The last time we visited he also didn't kill you, did he?"

"But that's only because we spent the whole day with Meridionale alone. We didn't really get to see him much the last time." Tsuna answered as the images of the last visit flashed in his mind. Just by remembering Xanxus's blood-red gaze shooting invisible daggers at him made the 14-years-old teen want to dig a hole and bury himself in it. "Not to mention this time we have to sit _in front_ of him during the whole wedding while witnessing his affair with his bride."

"It's just another famiglia event," Reborn replied to his student as he sipped his espresso. "we will be leaving as soon as the wedding is over. It's not going to take too long, probably just a few hours." *Smirk*

"A few hours..." Tsuna repeated as the words echoed in his head. _A few hours with the Varias... is going to be living hell..._

"Besides," Tsuna woke up from his thoughts as Reborn's voice sounded by his ear again. "all your Guardians are going to accompany you. So stop being a baby and start to act like a Boss."

Tsuna sighed at his tutor's words. There really is no way that he'll ever win against Reborn in anything. Whether if it's an argument or a fight.

"Don't worry, Juudaime!" Tsuna jumped from his seat when his self-proclaimed Right Hand Man screamed beside his ear. "If that bastard dares to lay a finger on you, I'll blow him along with his place into pieces!" Gokudera took out his dynamites as a proof to his words.

Tsuna sweat-dropped at that. As the boss, he knows well about his Guardian's strength. And he also knows that Gokudera is no match for Xanxus and even more not against the whole Varia.

"Ahahaha, those fireworks again?" the baseball athlete laughed as he swung his arm around Gokudera's shoulder.

"How many times must I tell you, Baseball Idiot? That these _are NOT_ fireworks!" the Storm Guardian shouted at the still laughing Rain. "Do you want me to proof it on you?"

"Maa maa, Gokudera-kun, we don't want to destroy the plane." Tsuna said as he tried to calm his Guardian down.

"I-If the Tenth says so." Gokudera replied as he obediently kept his dynamites.

"Haha, the obedient Gokudera is so cute." Yamamoto laughed, totally not minding the way his lover treats their boss like how he was in the past.

"Tch, idiots should just shut up." Gukudera spat as he made his way towards his seat so that Tsuna and Reborn were not able to see the little blush appearing on his cheek.

"Haha, so shy yet still so cute." Yamamoto said as he walked after the silver-haired italian.

"Looks like there's no problem with your Guardians now huh?" the Sun Arcobaleno asked his student.

"I don't think so..." the Sky replied. "Speaking of which, is Meridionale-san going to be the new Varia Cloud after she's married to Xanxus?"

"Well, that's something that they have to settle with themselves. But I don't think she'll be the official Cloud Guardian though. She is still the Fiancata Cloud Guardian after all, and she probably is just going to help the Varias taking care of their missions with the title of 'The wife of the Varia Boss'."

"But the Varias don't seem to like her very much huh?"

"You know those guys pretty well yourself, you should at least know that they're a screwed up group and lacks respect to everyone except their boss. It's not strange for them to hate 'outsiders'. "

"I wonder who should I pity. Meridionale-san or the Varias..."

* * *

**A/N: Ya... well... I pretty much get the idea from '****Swords And Love**', because I don't really know what is there to prepare for weddings... Never been to one before...

**By the way, do you guys think I should change the genre to humor instead of drama? Personally, I think the story is more of a humor than drama story, so I was wondering if there's a need of change...**

**Further information, because you guys probably don't like the content of this chpt, I'll be updating the next one very soon. Just as soon as I finished up all my holiday homeworks...**

**Also, I just noticed that I haven't been saying this for a long time. So... Thank you to all those people out there who reviewed this, favourited this, followed this, or simply just read this. I know that I'm not good with either english or words, but I'll try my best to write this story!**

**Now, before we end off, let's just shout this out loud together.**

**Se no... HAPPY BIRTHDAY SQU-CHAN!**

**R & R please! Cakes will be given out! :)**


	19. The after wedding

**A/N: Hi people! On a one week holiday right now and just more or less finished half of my homework.**

**Like some of my class said, one week holiday, one month of homework. -_-ll Ya, it's hard on us.**

**As promised, I've updated this new chappie! **

**But maybe to some of you's disappointment, the details of the wedding will not be revealed as...**

**1) I don't know how to write wedding stuff ( never been to one before )**

**2) I thought that you won't like it, reading Xanxus getting married with someone who isn't Squalo and can't go into the story and punch the girl's face.**

**Ya, so... let's hurry up and begin.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own so don't sue.**

* * *

Xanxus sank down in his throne-like-armchair back in his office. The day sucked to him even though it appeared to be a celebration to the rest of the famiglia. Despite all the effort his men put in for this day, Xanxus could see it crystal clear that they're also not happy about it. After all, he isn't the boss for no reason. Something such as Bel's Cheshire grin and Fran's monotone isn't going to fool him.

The wedding went out quite smoothly, as far as he could say. The only ones who participated are the Ninth and his Guardians, that Tsunayoshi brat and his Guardians, Dino along with Romario, and of course, the Fiancata Famiglia. How could they miss the officially-allienced day between the two famiglia?

It's just the basic routine of a normal wedding, with Xanxus waiting for his bride at the altar, then Meridionale walked down the aisle accompanied by her bridesmaids. The girl looks nice, for a trash he would say. The dress Bel designed was simply gorgeous, as expected from the prince trash. Her hair was slightly curled at the tip, the wind blowing it just enhanced her beauty. The eyelashes appeared to be longer by the mascara and the eyebrows were slightly coloured. The translucent headdress covering her face made out the mysterious effect and not to mention the veil that flowed behind her like a wave of white.

Then there's the priest talking about something that Xanxus paid no attention to, only bother to utter a "I do" somewhere when he was asked if he wanted to marry the girl. The girl replied the same thing when it was her turn.

The only difference of this wedding is when the priest acknowledged him to kiss the girl, Xanxus refused.

"I'll kiss her whenever I fucking want, trash." that was his reply.

Expecting him to kiss a normal trash, not going to happen in a million years.

* * *

"Ciaossu, Squalo." Dino waved at the silverette who is cleaning the place up.

"Yo, Cavallone." the other greeted back as he jumped off the flight of stairs. "Why are you still here? Don't you have other famiglia issues to deal with?"

"I want to see my former classmate before I head off." the blonde smiled as he replied. "Any problems with that?"

"Not really." Squalo answered nonchalantly as he go back to work.

"By the way, Squalo." Dino called out to his 'friend' who stopped on his track. "What happened on that day? The only thing I saw is you riding on a Rain-class _whale_."

"This and that," the shark replied, not even turning his head towards the blonde. "things that I don't want to bring up. Now, I'm just going to continue my job." he said as he walked away, leaving Dino dumbfounded.

"Huh? What is that suppose to mean?" the Cavallone done asked apparently no one.

"It's pretty complicated, my kitten." Dino jumped at the sudden voice behind his back and turned to face the Varia Sun Guardian.

"Lu-Lussuria, since when have you been there?" Dino asked, still a bit startled.

"Oh, just a while ago. I was on my way to put the flowers into the garden." Lussuria answered. "Anyway, about the incident last time, I think it should be more safe for you to not brought it up in front of Squ-chan or Boss."

"B-But, what happened?"

"Oh, I explain to you later. Now, will you be a dear and help me get all these flowers to the garden?"

* * *

"I see..." Dino uttered as he placed another bunch of lilies in the bush.

"So now that you understand what happened, will you promise to not bring that up in front of Boss and Squ-chan?" Lussuria asked as he himself got the white roses into the bushes along with the red ones.

"Yes, thank you Lussuria."

"It's okay, just call me Luss-nee-chan."

"Ahahah..." Dino sweat-dropped. "But why would Lacrimare do such thing? Since you've already got the famiglia alliance, he shouldn't be continuing the war right?"

"Hmmm, now that you mentioned it... These days we're all too busy with the wedding preparation, so none of us actually thought about that."

"Further more, if one of the Guardians is doing it, doesn't that make the other Guardians also quite suspicious?"

"But we're allies now. By destroying us they'll just be weaker."

"The Fiancata Famiglia pulled out pretty much of a fight with the Vongola. They might not be as weak as how we thought they were. Anyway, for safety, just stay on guard all the time. Remind the others too."

"Sure, Dino."

* * *

"Ushishishi~" Belphegor laughed as he opened the door to the bride-dressing-room. "The Prince found his froggy~"

Yup, that's right. Fran is in charge of cleaning the bride-dressing-room.

"Oh, it's just you, Bel-senpai." the emotionless frog replied in his usual monotone voice as he shot the self-proclaimed Prince a glance before turning back to clearing all the make-ups on the table.

"Ushishi. Don't 'oh, it's just you' the Prince. Sound more honored when the Prince decided to visit you personally to his royalty."

"Sure sure, boast all you want, Senpai." Fran said as he finally finished keeping the last piece of jewelry back into its box. "By the way, Senpai. Why aren't you doing your job by cleaning the groom-dressing-room?"

"Ushishi. The Prince is goddamn competent at his work, and he always get them done pretty fast too you know." Bel smirked.

"Oh, no wonder you're always so free."

"Ushishishi. The Prince is not 'free', Froggy. The Prince just specially did his work super fast so he'll be able to spend his time with his froggy! Ushishishishishi~"

"Yay~. How luck Me is... Is that what Me is supposed to say, Bel-senpai?"

"Ushishi, close enough."

"Then does that mean you are done with Me?"

"Ushishi, of course no!"

"Senpai~ Leave Me alone. People actually wants some privacy here..."

"What privacy could Froggy have? The Prince knows everything about Froggy already."

*Sigh* "You just want to stay here and bug Me for the rest of your life, don't you?"

"Ushishi, of course!"

*Sigh*

* * *

-One month later-

Everything remained as usual in the Vongola's Independent Assassin Squad, Varia.

Well, _almost_ the same.

Now that Meridionale is officially part of Varia, she has been going out on missions with them. But the rest didn't really take her presence seriously though. Whenever they saw her in the mansion, they just chose to take a different route and pretend she wasn't there. And they don't really see her in the mansion often as she mainly like to stay in Xanxus's office. But of course, that gives the boss a terrible headache, even though he never showed it.

Within the past one month, the Cloud girl had been going back to the Fiancata Mansion once or twice every week. It appears as if nobody actually cares, but in reality, they were all waiting for that day of the week eagerly. And you could hear the sarcastic cheer of the little frog few minutes after the main gate of the Varia Mansion was shut by the Fiancata Cloud.

Yup, it was pretty much the same all right.

If you don't count _that_ in...

It was suppose to be the day that Meridionale came back from her visit to her own famiglia. She usually will be back in the morning before everyone wakes up.

But not today.

It was already 12 in the midnight. Not the usual bed time for the Varias, but there's still no slight trace of the girl. Most of the Varias were in the living room, with Prince Belphegor sitting on the couch, arms crossed and placed on the giant frog hat of Fran's, who was sitting on the floor, watching TV. Mama Luss was sitting on the armchair next to the two, knitting his sweater. Yes, he fucking_ knit_. Mammon is sitting by the table, calculating the bill of the month. With one extra people in the mansion, the electric bill and water bill had all gone up. Nobody really cares where the hell that Leviathan go, so we'll skip him.

The only ones who were missing are the two bosses of Varia. Where have they gone? In their own office, of course. Night time is always the time for paper-works.

It was all supposed to be a normal night when...

"Who's there?" Bel shouted as he send one of his flamed-knives flying towards the ceiling. The ceiling broke as an air bomb came crashing down into the room, filling the whole room with smoke.

*Cough Cough* "What the hell..." the gayish voice of Lussuria was heard in the middle of the smoke.

"Senpai, where are you?" Fran called out towards different directions.

"VOI! What the fuck is with all the noise out here?" Squalo shouted as he slammed the door of his office against the wall. But he got his answer as soon as he saw the smoke in the room.

"Squalo, what you come out for? Great, now we got more people in the middle of all this smoke." Mammon's voice was heard somewhere within the smoke.

"Ushishi... what is with all this smoke, peasant?" Bel asked as he looked up to the ceiling again, but because of all the commotion he wasn't able to hear the reply...

"Fufufu~"

* * *

**A/N: Okay, my apologies, minna! *bows bows* I'm seriously lacking of ideas already! I have complete no idea what to write to fill up the one month gap. I don't know how those authors who wrote random one-shots do it, but I just don't know how to be random! *sob***

**And my serious lack of vocabularies and poor english is so not helping... I'm so not good with words...**

**OMG, I feel like just slamming myself against the wall or something. It's just right beside me...**

**I tried asking my friends for suggestion of random stuff and this is what she told me. ( She didn't read KHR )**

**"They went up to people's house... knock on their door... and shout PEEKABOO!... and ran away... " -_-**

**Anyway, I'll just made this part go faster and you'll pretty much be expecting a lot of fightings in the following chpts.**

**Well, better hurry up so that I could finish my homework.**

**Ciaociao! R & R please!**


	20. In the room of smoke

**A/N: Ciaossu, Minna-san! Using my computer lesson to do this chpt now as I probably won't have enough time to finish it later at home...**

**Saa, let's all cheer as this story has just reach it's 20TH CHPT! YAY!**

**By the way, just for additional information, this story of mine is like half a year old already! I'm so proud! ^^**

**Also, thank you Midori the Matchmaker for the PM, I'm so touched that my story actually deserves people's waiting... *tears*  
**

**And my sister still tells me that no one likes my story because the characters are OOC and my grammar sucks and all...**

**So well, before I hurry back to whatever I still got in my hands, I'll finish with this chpt first! *Dying will Mode***

**Disclaimer: KHR is not mine, it's Amano's, face the fact!**

* * *

_Where the story left off..._

_It has been a month after Xanxus and Meridionale's wedding. And this day, the girl had gone home to visit her famiglia. leaving the rest of the Varia in the living room. And that was when Bel stabbed the ceiling, causing smokes to come out and filled the whole room..._

"Ushishi... What is with all this smoke, peasant?"

"VOI! We're under attack you piece of crap Prince! Shut the fuck up and find your way out of all these fucking smoke!" Squalo's loud voice was heard echoing through all the smoke.

"Haaaaaiiii~ Commander..." Fran responded while still covering his trembling ears with his hands.

_It shouldn't be that hard to get out of all this smoke... _Fran thought to himself as he start making his way wandering around in the middle of, apparently nowhere. _Okay... maybe I don't exactly know where I am. But if I just keep walking, maybe I'll- Itai! _Fran clutched his head that got hit by the wall behind all the smoke. _Okay, maybe it IS very hard after all..._

( Fran )

_Hmm, who is it?_

( Yare yare you little brat... Can't even identify me with my voice... )

_Mammon-san?_

( Bingo, but that was still a pretty late answer. )

_How is Me suppose to know that you can come inside my mind?_

( I AM the world's most powerful spell caster for a reason. *Sigh* No wonder Bel call's you 'Stupid Frog'... )

_Hey, hey. Me-tachi are in the middle of some smoke and currently considered lost here... Can we don't change the subject at a time like this?_

( *Sigh* Fine... I'll tell you, Fran. These smokes aren't just _normal _smokes. They are made with Mist-classed flame. )

_So all this smoke is just an illusion?_

( No. They are real, but there's a slight hint of Mist flame inside it. Causing people to lost their way in it. )

_So if Me-tachi continue to wander around here, we're just going to get ourselves more and more lost?_

( Pretty much... )

_And you got any ideas on how to get out of here?_

( I do. But I won't be so sure about you and the others. I'm the world's best illusionist. Some illusions of this standard is a piece of cake for me. But what about you, newbie? )

_Hey, mind your words. Me is after all your inheritor and Master Mukuro's student. Don't over-underestimate Me._

( Well, then I'll feel safe about letting you get out of all this smoke by yourself then. I'm still going to get in contact with the rest so I'll be leaving now... )

Fran heard Mammon's voice fading as his presence vanish along with it, so he guessed that the Mist Arcobaleno had already left his brain.

"Great, and master told me that seeing through illusions is not easy. Guess he's not that tough after all." the youngest Varia mumbled as he started making his way again. "Stupid smoke, stupid master... Should Me pray to God now? Seeing that no one is actually helpful... Itai." the said froggy landed on his butt as he knocked into another wall. "Well, just wandering around doesn't seem to be doing any good, so what now? Shishou~, dasukete..."

_...Hidden within an illusion there's another illusion. Born within an illusion is another illusion. Lies hidden within the truth. Truth hidden within the lies. This is the Mist..._

"Illusions within illusions... Hmmm, this may be dumb but let's just try it anyway, seeing Me has no better idea." Fran whispered as he got himself back on his feet. He started creating an illusion himself. An illusion of an electric fan, blowing away all the smoke in his way, and soon the visions of the corridor entered his view.

_This has got to be the stupidest idea ever..._ Fran thought before he saw Mammon floating at the end of the hallway.

"Wow, what do you know? It actually worked... If_ that_'s not an illusion..." the boy said under his breath.

"Hey, Mammon-san." Fran greeted as he made his way towards his senior.

"Fran, I can't believe that I'm saying this, but I'm actually quite glad that you made your way out of all that smoke. It seem's that I wasn't able to contact with the rest, most probably had gotten themselves lost in the all that illusion is my guess." Mammon said as he landed on Fran's head with the help of Phantasma.

"Mammon-san, this isn't time for jokes," Fran said, completely not serious with his senior's words. "Me isn't really sure about Luss and Levi, but Sempai and Taichou should be experienced enough to see through that kind of illusion."

"Yes, but like I said before, this isn't_ normal_ illusion. Normal illusion is to make their enemy feel, see, hear, or smell things that _aren't_ there. But now, this smoke is _real_, just with a bit of Mist flame inside it. Under normal circumstances, if the enemy is aware that they are experiencing an illusion, it will have no effect on them and does not exist. But now they _know_ that the smokes are real, so probably have no awareness of the Mist flame hidden inside it and got themselves fooled by the illusion."

"Okay... so what's going to happen to them then?"

"Who knows? I also dad no idea where they'll be lead to by all the illusions. But let's just hope that they'll find some way to deal with whatever that's ahead of them by themselves. Meanwhile let's go back in again, maybe we'll meet some of them inside. There's no point of staying here anyway."

"Whatever you say, Mammon-san."

* * *

-Lussuria-

_Mou~ It's gotten awfully quiet around here... I can't even hear Squ-chan's yells anymore._

_But I can't really tell where I am right now because of all this smoke. Mou, why isn't it clearing yet?_

_Seriously, all the walls seemed to disappear somehow... I'm pretty sure there's a wall here, but... nothing?_

_Oh my, I wonder how long have I been wondering around here already... And I don't really know where our intruder is so I better stay on my guard so I'll be ready when he suddenly made an attack..._

A cracking sound was heard and Lussuria turned his head around, trying to define where it came from. But then there it is, again. This time Lussuria confirmed that it was coming from the floor.

_What the- Is it an earthquake? It can't possibly happen at a time like this, it's just too wrong! Perhaps it's an illusion...? _

_Yes! That makes so much sence now. If this is all an illusion then it means..._

"Ara, that took you pretty long to figure out." an unfamiliar yet quite familiar voice sliced throught the silence.

"Who is there?" the Varia Sun questioned as he hold his position.

"Haha, impatient aren't you? Don't worry, we'll have plenty of time to settle this out." the voice that seemed to be echoing from all different directions said as the floor started cracking again. And that is when it finally broke and won't be able to give support to the weight above it anymore.

_Oh dear... _Lussuria lost his footing and started to fall. Deeper and deeper. The broken remains of the floor fell along with him. He can't really tell where he is now. It's like a world of darkness and voicelessness... Into a world of nothingness...

But, not yet.

"This type of illusion isn't going to fool me, my dear." Lussuria challenged the owner of the voice as he stood in the middle of nothing. "As soon as I realise this is an illusion, I won't be falling for it anymore."

"Ara, that's something good to hear." the voice spoke with amusement in his voice. "I'm expecting some entertainments from this after all. Or else it'll just be boring."

"If you wish for entertainments, why don't you come out and let us have a little _something_ here?" the Varia's Mama asked as he smiled, or rather smirked. "Don't you think it won't be very fair to fight like this?"

"Ahaha, that doesn't really matter to me." the voice answered. "After all, my battle here isn't the main point of our intrusion. Now I guess this will just be boring after all. I still got other business to do after settling you."

"I may not know what you have in mind, my dear. But one thing I can assure you is that you're not going to settle me that easily."

"I don't think so~" the voice faded just before a bunch of snakes came charging towards the Varia Sun Guardian, wrapping themselves around him, forcing him unable to move. Lussuria tried getting the snakes off him, but he could hardly move his arm, the snakes had tangled on it. No matter how much he tried to move the snakes just won't get away from him. And it became worse when he lost control of his perception and make him started falling again.

But even when falling, his mind still did not stop functioning...

_... "Our?" ..._

* * *

-Levi-

_Tch, I've been wondering in here for ages! What's with all this smoke? It is delaying my 'help Bossu as his Right-Hand man' time!  
_

_Just you wait you pity little intruder! Screw you! Screw you AND your stupid smoke! Once I got myself out of all this I swear that I'll make you have hell to pay!_

"Tsk tsk. I won't be so sure about that." someone's voice was heard from behind and so Levi turned his head to meet face to face with a mask-wearing guy. The mask was white, covering the whole of his face, leaving only the eyes uncovered. Despite the mask, he was still wearing a hooded, black cloak.

"Finally showing yourself, huh?" the Varia Thunder Guardian glared at the intruder, taking out one of his parabolas and started charging it with Thunder flame, ready to attack anytime.

"Oh no, you don't." the guy under the mask said. But before Levi could even get a hold of what he had said, he had already dropped his weapon.

_What ?!_

He felt the pain coming from his hand and looked down on it. His hand was bleeding, the back of it was already covered with red liquid. And he has to admit, it was painful. Not like he's ever going to say it out though. He _is_ a Varia. They don't show their weakness.

He glared at his enemy again and that is when he noticed that the guy had a gun, revolver to be exact, in his hand, along with some smokes coming out from it. That should explain the injury on his hand.

"Tsk tsk, too reckless." the guy scowled as he kept away his gun under that long sleeve of his.

"You- YOU!" Levi spat out. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" he picked up his dropped parabola and charged towards his opponent once again.

"Guess some people just never learn..." the masked-man said as he continued standing there. With complete no intention of dodging of escaping.

_How foolish. _Levi thought as he stabbed through his opponent with his parabola charged with Thunder-class flame. He smirked, thinking he had killed his opponent. But the feeling of accomplishment didn't last long as he heard a gunshot and the next thing he knows, his right chest is already bleeding.

"What the-? How-?" he questioned before letting go of his parabola and fell onto the ground head first. He clutched his wound in pain as he watch his opponent pull out his parabola and threw it onto the floor like some trash.

"How pathetic, you're not even worth my time." the guy said as he vanished in the cloud of smokes, leaving a bloody Thunder Guardian on the floor, wondering...

_WHAT are you?_

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the late update people! Exams are coming in one week time, and trust me, the life of a 15-years-old is hard!  
**

**Hope you guys don't feel bored with the story as there's still more to come!**

**And before we end off... HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY YAMA-CHAN!**

**Reviews are welcomed, both good or bad.**


	21. Starting

**A/N: Minna-san! Oishi-sashiburi desu! Minna genki ka?**

**YAY! Exams are finally over! More fanfic time for me!**

**I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart. *bows bows***

**I know that this is supposed to be a XS story but all you see is all about the other members of Varia, but I swear I have a good explanation for that!**

**Xanxus isn't really the type that gives much of a thought to any thing and Squalo is currently... under some 'situation'... *cannot spoil***

**OK, maybe that's not _that_ good for an explanation, so I'll just let the story do the talking.**

**Disclaimer: KHR isn't mine, neither is the Varia. They're just too awesome to be owned by someone like me... T.T~~~**

* * *

-Bel-

_Tch, stupid peasant and his stupid smoke. _

_What on earth are you thinking by trapping us inside this maze of smoke?_

_Just by separating us isn't really that much helpful to you, you know that idiotic peasant?_

_What in the world can you achieve by getting us lost in this?_

_And you're not even showing yourself into attacking, the Prince doubts that you don't intend to kill us all here and now._

_Come on now peasant, show yourself!_

_The Prince dares you to come out this instant to greet his royal highness!_

With that thought running in his head, Bel almost missed the explosion behind him. The wall that was covered by the smokes, causing Bel to not notice it before, suddenly exploded, sending the expensive materials flying. The second youngest Varia wasted no time turning around and throwing a few of his knives at the shadow behind all the smokes, which just seemed to have reflected themselves and charged their way towards their owner, who dodged just in time before any of them actually made any contact with his skin.

"Tch, about time the peasant come out to meet the Prince. Ushishishi." the Varia Storm Guardian laughed as he got into position, knives ready in hands.

"Tsk tsk, impatient little brat I see." the deep voice commented as sound of footsteps followed. Bel stared at his opponent, who appeared to be a mask-wearing guy wearing a hooded, black cloak.

"A peasant like you has no right to judge the Prince." the blonde sneered as another set of knives was sent flying towards the strange-looking man. But without the smokes in the way this time, Bel was able to see with his very own eyes that his knives were blocked and sent flying in another angle by the xyston in his opponent's hand, which he hadn't notice before.

"Whatever, like I could care less." the guy said. "But since you asked for it, don't think I'll go easy on you." Without giving the self-proclaimed 'Prince' any second to register his thoughts, the intruder had already charged towards him like a wild animal attacking its prey, xyston ready in hand. But the attack was easily blocked by Bel's knives.

"Ushishi, that's the Prince's line, not something a peasant like you should be saying." the Storm smirked as his free hand pulled out another knife skillfully from underneath his Varia jacket and was about to stab his opponent when his wrist was grabbed. Before he knew it, he was already thrown across to the other side of the hall, judo style.

"Gah! What the hell?" Bel groaned as he hurriedly stood back on his feet , facing his enemy with gritted teeth. "So the stupid peasant got some moves too, huh?" he forced himself into a smirk.

"You don't seem too bad yourself, _your Highness_." the masked-guy muttered as he pulled out a Box from under that thick, dark, cloak of his. "Since the others got their targets cleared already, I suppose you are one of the stronger ones." clenched his right fist and light up a ring on his middle finger. The colour of the flame proves that he's a Storm holder. "I guess that people do give a thought about it before calling you a genius."

"Ushishishi. Of course I'm a genius. After all, I'm a Prince!"

"So I guess you're suggesting me not to hold back?" he punched the red flame into the Bos in his left hand. "Well, I'm not going to, at least from here onwards."

The eyes that were hidden behind the golden bangs widen as a gush of red flames filled the hallway, turning it into a sea of red...

* * *

"Mammon-san, did you sense that?"

" 'That', as in someone here 'keeping an eye' on us, then yes, I did." the elder Mist Guardian of Varia answered his teal-haired junior. "Is it me, or did you notice that _just now_?"

"Can't be helped, Me's techniques aren't as skilled as you are, Mammon-san." the emotionless junior replied blandly.

"But for crying out loud, it has already been half an hour! And you're telling me you _now_ then noticed?!" Mammon questioned as he eyed the teenage boy beside him as if he's a retard, resisting the urge to face-palm.

"Why on earth, Mammon-san, would _you_ not mention it sooner if you realise it all this while?" Fran questioned back, trying to maintain his normal monotonous voice.

" 'Why?' you ask, because it was for the sake of training you, you brat. I can see that you're still not skilled enough to see through illusions."

Fran rolled his eyes and turned around. "Forget it... Whoever is watching Me-tachi could you kindly step out now? It really is a pain having your murderous glares staring through our backs."

"Jeez, so I was found out this whole time?" a cloud of indigo mist appeared in front of the two illusionist. A teenage boy who looks no older than Fran stepped out from it as the mist dispersed itself. The boy was wearing a green suit with white dress shirt underneath, with golden somewhat messy hair with spikes. With just one glance is enough for the two illusionist to recognise who the little guy is.

"You are... you are... Excuse me, but what's you're name again?" Fran asked, giving the person a questioning look.

Mammon face-palmed. Literally.

"His name is Baleno, if I remember correctly." the former Mist of Varia stated. "The Thunder Guardian of Fiancata Famiglia I believe."

"And I believe that _I_ should be thankful that _you_ remembered my name, Arcobaleno." the blonde kid stated flatly.

"So what business do you have with Me-tachi?" Fran asked the Fiancata Thunder. "If you haven't realise, we're kinda busy trying to find the others here, so please make your explanation a quick one, thank you."

"That was rude," Baleno complained, even though his tone contradicted his words. "Mind telling me what in the world is going on in here?"

"Sure, if you pay 5 million euro in exchange." the greedy baby answered.

"Forget it then, don't want to get myself broke because of some stupid answer." Baleno shrugged as he dig inside his pockets before pulling out a silver ninja star. "Besides, I know the answer to that question already anyway." *smirk*

"Nani?!" the two Mist Guardians of Varia gasped as the ninja stars were sent flying in their directions like real shooting stars. However, as assassins, they were trained better than that. Mammon levitated from Fran's giant frog hat with the help of the yellow ouroboros 'halo' above him just in time before a few got stabbed onto Fran's hat.

"Itai, why does _everyone_ likes stabbing Me now?" the youngest Varia asked sarcastically.

"That'll teach you not to slack during physical training." Mammon remarked.

"You know, you should be bleeding when you got stabbed. At least logically..." the youngest Fiancata Guardian pointed out, holding another identical ninja star between his index and middle fingers.

"Sure sure, that's what everyone who stabs me says..." Fran answered as he pulled out the silver metals in his hat before dropping them onto the floor. " 'Everyone' being pineapple-haired Shishou and idiotic fake-Prince Senpai and others."

"You know, that 'Senpai' of yours isn't really idiotic." another smirk. "He actually lasted the longest among all the others, proving that he was a genius for a reason."

"So you're implying that..."

"He's the one who intrudes here. And according to his words, if he's not lying, there should be more of them in this mansion." Mammon answered his junior's question before the Fiancata Thunder could, still wondering what is wrong with the teal-haired teen's brain.

"You got that right, Arcobaleno." more ninja stars were sent flying across the hallway. The Mist Arcobaleno wasted no time dodging them and creating an illusion of blue tentacled, wrapping themselves around the four limps of the little blonde, but were teared apart as soon as they made contact with his clothed arms by a ball of green flame.

"I had no idea what you're intending to do here. Killing us here isn't really of any good achievements. After all, we're now allied famiglias, by destroying us you'll probably be punished severely by the higher-ups." the hooded infant stated as he rolled the shredded paper back under his Varia cloak.

"Of course," Baleno chortled. "but that is not the reason why we're here." the ball of Thunder-class fame vanished and there was a snow-white furred rabbit in its place. "Save the talking, it'll take too much time explaining this and that. Let's just finish our job here, Yuki."

* * *

The great Boss of Varia sat in his throne-like chair in his office, he swung his left calve over his right leg and sipped the vodka from his glass. The Varia mansion was dead quiet, no sound of a living soul in the place. The first reason that leads to suspicion of the Varia leader considering it's only twelve thirty-five in the morning, not really the best time for the 'enthusiastic' Varia members to be in bed. During a time like this, it could either means that Bel was pulling a prank on him, like once when he tried putting a bucket of water on top of the door, waiting to hit Xanxus anytime when he comes out. But lucky for him, it hit the 'guard dog' Levi instead. After the Thunder Guardian rushed to the bathroom, trying to get his soaked self cleaned up, he got attacked by the bottle of pepper on top of the door, again. That caused him to sneeze so hard that he almost blow off the Varia rooftop, which is something the money-minded Mammon won't be so happy with. The other possible meaning behind the silence will be the Varia Second-in-Command got sick and lost his voice, which doesn't happen often. The last time the shark got sick, the whole Varia remained quiet for 24 hours straight as since the Rain Guardian cannot scream, he uses his sword as a replacement.

Obviously, the second possibility is out, so that left the first one. Just for safety-checking, plus easier doing, Xanxus pulled out one of his X-guns and blast the door. Not so surprisingly, smokes started to make their way into the room. Thinking it's one of the blond brat's prank, Xanxus just remained in his seat with his eyes closed. But they quickly snapped open at the sound of broken glass and just in time to witness flying bullets fly past his very own eyes and boke the window behind him.

"Fufufu~"

* * *

**A/N: I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE PEOPLE! **

**This chpt is short and almost nothing happened... But don't worry, it's the beginning of summer vacation! Which means more time to works on dear chappies now! YAY!**

**So trust me, the next one will be updated very soon, okay? ( As long as I solved my problem of converting pictures to words... )**

**Addition: I was pretty sure that I'm going to finish this story by this year though, because I definitely won't have time for it next year...**

**Please review! They make my day! ^^**


	22. The Boss's fight

**A/N: Okay everyone, like I said, this next one will be out very soon. ( I hope this is within your definition of 'soon'... )  
**

**Okay, let's make it clear, I think I'm going to make the chpts longer for it to move a bit quicker, because apparently I'm running out of time... ( No, I'm not dying, calm down everyone! )**

**So let's just get it started.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own KHR, Vongola and Varia are all Amano's.**

* * *

"Who's there?!" Xanxus shouted at whoever, or whatever, that is by the door and fired both his pistols once again at the already broken door. The result is just having the expensive materials of the door and more smokes sent flying in all different directions. A dark shadow jumped from its original position at the door and landed on one of his knees gracefully right in front of the Varia Boss' desk.

"Explain yourself, trash." Xanxus snarled, pointing his X-gun at the intruder's temple. "What the hell are you doing in _my_ territory?"

"Fufufu." the guy laughed as he stood up, left hand reaching up to lower his tall black hat. "The most simple answer is, I just don't like you."

A knee was sent to the guy's stomach before he was send backwards and smashed against the wall behind him.

"Whatever shitty reason you have, prepare to die for your action, scum." Xanxus said as he placed his right feet on the toppled desk with a pistol in his left hand, charging with his unique Flame of Warth.

"Now, now." the guy got to his feet and patted the dust off his back. "The one who is going to die might not be me."

"Oh yeah?" the boss of Varia smirked as he pulled the trigger. A barrage of orange flame was unleashed simultaneously that it appeared to fuse together into one large super-powerful blast and charged at the enemy, who attempted to dodge it but half failed as he got half of himself burned.

"Urgh... that's powerful..."the guy hissed as he clenched his wounded side. "Guess the flame of Vongola Secondo and the gun of Vongola Settimo isn't just sophisticated after all..."

"Hey scum, I thought you say you might not be the one dying?"

"Yeah, but I wonder now..." a hand was placed against the wall for balance. "Maybe asking for help from some familiar person now is a good time."

"No one is coming to help you, trash." a pistol was pointed at the guy. "DIE!"

A bullet covered with the orange Dying Will Flame of the Sky came charging towards the intruder and would most probably end his life if it wasn't for the powerful fireball to be parted into two harmless condenses of gas somehow.

"What the h-" the Varia Sky wasn't able to complete his sentence as several small amounts of Gunpowder were sent flying in his direction. By Mafia instinct, Xanxus dodged sideways to prevent himself from being blowed up like the floor beneath him that got hit.

"What is _this_?!" Xanxus questioned, still a little shocked at the somehow familiar attack. Somewhere deep down in his memory he feels that it should be there... Something he was suppose remember...

*PING*

Before Xanxus got lost in his thoughts, he was pulled back by the sudden attack from his opponent and was just in time to block whatever that was attacking him with his gun. Then was when he could actually see the face of his attacker.

"Shark trash, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Xanxus roared as he jumped back quickly to look at the man in front of him. Long silver hair with almost matching silver eyes, wearing a Varia uniform as well as a sword attached to the left hand. It's his Second in Command all right, no doubt about it.

"Fufu. Isn't it obvious?" the hat-guy stepped forward and placed a hand on the silverette's shoulder. "He's my ally."

"Subordinate of _mine_ is never ally of _yours_." Xanxus protested. "Not before. Not now. Not _ever_!"

"Believe it or not, this guy is at _my_ side now." the guy shot the Varia Boss a smirk. "Not _yours_."

"What the fuck are you anyway?" Xanxus questioned, nut the words come out more like a demand than a question. He aimed his pistol at the guy's hat and fired. The guy ducked to safe himself from being burned into ashes but his hat was unfortunately hit and burned, revealing short raven hair. The once closed black eyelids slowly opened, revealing baby blue eyes.

"Aren't you..." Xanxus stared at the guy who slowly stood up and ran his fingers through his dark locks. "Fiancata?!"

"Please, my friend, just call me Settentrionale will do." the raven said. "But that is, for the remaining time you have left."

The words fall like a command. At the end of that sentence, the shark sprung forward, trying to catch the Varia Boss off guard but didn't quite succeed as Xanxus quickly blocked the blade with his gun.

"Get a hold of yourself, you scum." Xanxus demanded towards his Rain Guardian. "What is with you?"

His words seemed to have reach death ears as Squalo apparently ignored his boss's words and continued attacking from various angles but were all blocked by the older man.

"Shitty shark, you asked for it." Xanxus growled in anger as he emitted the Flame of Wrath identical to the Vongola Secondo in his left hand and aimed his fist at the swordsman before firing a huge fireball that exploded near the abdomen. To the shark's disadvantage, he wasn't quick enough to react and got hit directly. The pressure of the flame slamming him backwards and into the wall where Settentrionale landed in few minutes ago.

"Now," the scarred man turned his blood-red eyes towards the other raven-haired man in the room. "what should I do about you?"

"Oh. no no no." the Fiancata Sky shook his index finger in the air. "Not _that_ fast."

Before Xanxus could figure out what those words mean, he already got his answer when he was literally cut by the air in front of him. As he clenched his bleeding arm, he looked up to see his supposed-to-be subordinate already standing on his feet, sword in position to give another attack any time.

"You just don't know when to give up huh, shark trash?" Xanxus taunted as he closed the distance between him and the silverette with inhuman speed and delivered a punch to the shark's wounded stomach, causing him to spit out blood and land on his knees.

"That should do you enough," Xanxus glared at his Second in Command on the floor. "stop interrupting my business with the trash."

"My friend, my friend." the said 'trash' at the other side of the room shook his head disapprovingly. "You should know your subordinate better than me that he doesn't get defeated that easily. Nor does he gave up."

Xanxus was about to shut that mouth of the freaking trash the hell up by firing his X-guns at him but was disrupted when he was knocked against the back, causing him to fire the opposite direction of his target, creating the disintegrated clump beside the desk that was hit by the compressed annoyed, he was about to shot his Rain Guardian but was immediately cut off when a powerful blow was sent to his left gun, paralyzing his left arm in the process. The gun was knocked off from his hand and sent flying to the opposite end of the room soon afterwards. But it's not as if it'll have any use anymore since he can't use his left hand.

"Don't you ever have enough?!" Xanxus yelled. He attempted to hand his right elbow on the shark but was easily blocked by the other's sword. The raven pulled back immediately and lifted his left leg up, sending a kick to the surprised shark's side with a satisfying thud and got him flying across the floor.

"If I have to get through you before getting to the trash, I would!" the Varia Boss hissed lowly as he made his way towards the Rain who was trying to regain his stance. "So don't think I won't dare to kill you here and now."

The silverette still remained wordless but continued his previous attach by lunging forward and slashing his sword diagonally at his boss. The move surprisingly managed to cut off a few strands of dark hair from the raven, but other than that, he's unharmed.

"I really would like to remind you now," Xanxus said as he lifted his right gun and pointed it at Squalo. "that I'm you boss for a reason." the huge fireball exploded near the shark, who only just managed to dodge it to save his dear life, but his left arm seemed to have taken the attack and was bleeding, the red liquid soaked the sleeve, dyeing it red too.

With the Rain Guardian caught off guard, the Varia Boss quickly moved behind the swordsman to deliver a hard knock against his skull, sending him unconscious and falling onto the solid ground.

"Remember that."

"Bravo" Xanxus turned his attention to the person clapping at the other side of the room, the only word that could describe the expression on his face now is, irritation.

"Now," the Varia Sky forced a devilish smirk on his face. "where were we?"

"Don't think just because I lost my 'protector' I'll be totally defenseless." Settentrionale smirked back. "Do you recognize what is this?" he hold out a purple Box covered with cloud-like patterns of a lighter shade of purple.

"Scum, I don't have the habbit of remembering every Box I see."

"Fufu, is that so?" the Fiancata Boss smiled as he lighted the Sky Ring on his right middle finger and punched the orange flame of the Sky into the Box that was held with his left hand. Xanxus starred as the Box started to crack at the entrance surface and the rift keep extending around the other surfaces. Within a minute or two, the Box broke into pieces and the only thing that remained in the hands of the Sky is a sphere of purple.

"Does this ring a bell?" Settentrionale asked again. Xanxus tried taking a better look at the sphere and notices that the purple colour is slowly fading, replaced by a blinding white light. It takes a lot of focus for the Varia Boss to see the little hedgehog inside the light, curled in a small ball. Xanxus's eyes widened.

"Ho, I see you remembered now." the Fiancata Sky smiled as the light from the hedgehog keep expanding, covering a larger and larger radius until both Xanxus and himself were inside the sphere of light.

From the inside of the sphere, it looks as if they're in the sky, with a large invisible circular wall surrounding the two of them. There are spikes located on the walls inside the sphere like an arena ring.

"This is the 'Reverse Needle Sphere Form' of that Vongola Cloud trash..." Xanxus mumbled.

"Bingo!" Settentrionale approached the scarred man. "It certainly took us a lot of effort to create a Box identical to Hibari Kyouya's, but we still somehow managed it as you can see."

"And what are you intending to do with this?"

"Do you still remember how this sphere works?" *smirk* "Here is a completely segregated space that does not allow the presence of any other than two selected individuals. A battle could not be interfered with from the outside. Even other Box Weapons are prevented from entering and no Boxes can be used inside."

"Yeah, and so what?" the raven haired man questioned. "Do you think you could beat me just because I don't have my Box Weapon with me?" he raised his right hand to show the pistol still in it.

"Oh no no no." Settentrionale shook his finder in disapproval. "Do you still remember the last part? The most important part?"

"Oxygen?"

"Wrong answer!" he shook his head. "In here, a Ring's attribute can still be used because it only seals the Box Weapons but not the Dying Will Flames from the user."

"And is that all?" Xanxus questioned once again, pointing his pistol at the other's skull. "If you planned on having that as you're last words, I'll gladly guarantee that."

He pulled the trigger, but surprisingly nothing came out. Not the large yellow-orange fireball that he had expected, but plainly nothing. More curious than ever, the Varia Boss turned his attention from his weapon to his opponent, demanding for an answer.

"Fufufu, you really are an impatient one, aren't you. I haven't even complete my speech yet."

"The hurry the fuck up and spill it, NOW!"

"Alright alright, since you asked for it." his baby blue eyes turned from a kind one into a serious one. "I may have said just now that this Box is identical to Hibari's, but actually we made some extra changes to it." *smirk* "In here, no Dying Will Flames are allowed, and that includes your Flame of Wrath that you're so proud of."

Xanxus's eyes widened. If his Flame of Wrath was sealed, he would be of higher disadvantage as he cannot use his main power. As for the other guy, since he decided to use this technique, he's probably very confident with his combat skills.

"Don't think I'll lose just because I have to fight you empty-handed." the Varia Boss said as he kept his gun into his jacket.

"Fufu, why of course." he smiled again as he took out a short metal stick from his pocket which expanded, turning into a quarterstaff. He took the first move by leaping forward and swinging his weapon in from the outside, which was easily halted as Xanxus grabbed the other end, but he was quick with his next move by leaping upwards and landing behind the other Sky, sliding his leg against both of the Varia leader's feet. But Xanxus jumped just in time before being tripped and released his hold on the other's weapon.

"Thanks for giving it back." Xanxus heard those words before a hit was delivered to his left shoulder and was sent landing heavily on the ground. Before he could get to his feet, the quarterstaff was already charging in his direction, and if it's not for the fact that Xanxus moved sideways just in time, his ribcage would have been torn by then.

Xanxus quickly made his attack by grabbing hold of Settentrionale right arm and threw him across the the space in the sphere, with his back almost making contact with the spikes on the wall.

"Phew, that was a close one." the younger male commented as he wiped the blood on his left cheek off with his free hand.

"That's to teach you to never underestimate your opponent."

"Fufu, I would never said that I have ever underestimated you, my friend." Settentrionale replied as he did a front flip and landed on his feet once again. He was quick to resume his attack by charging towards Xanxus and thrusting his weapon towards his target. The Varia Boss moved his head away just in time and moved again when the quarterstaff thrusted at him again and jumped when it made a horizontal sweep just centimeters above the ground.

During that split second when he was in the air, he kneed his opponent in the back, causing him to lean forward and almost tripped on his feet. Settentrionale spun around and send his weapon to the side and hitting Xanuxs right in the abdomen. Upon receiving the impact, the scarred man landed heavily on the ground, coughing out some blood at the same time.

"Fufu, what's the matter? Can't fight without your flame?" the Fiancata Sky mocked.

The Varia leader got up and lifted his right fist for a punch on the other man's face but was immediately blocked by the other's left arm. With his free hand tightening the grip on his weapon, he swung it against Xanxus's right arm, paralyzing it too with the strong shockwave.

"How is it? Do you wish to admit your defeat now?" Settentrionale asked. "Don't be irrational, you don't have your flame and neither of your arms can barely move now. Admit defeat now and maybe I'll reward you with a painless death."

Before Xanxus could utter another word, both men heard the sound of walls crashing. They look up and saw the ceiling cracking and the walls along with the spikes attached to it are beginning to fall. Both men hurry up and dodged the falling ceiling as well as the other walls that are corrupting.

"What the hell?!" Settentrionale exclaimed as he blocked another broken wall with his quarterstaff. "This space isn't supposed to be destroyed from the outside, how is this happening?"

* * *

**A/N: Okay, this is _wayyyyyyyyyyyyy_ too hard for me. I swear my english sucks and my phrasing sucks too. Actually the main point is I have not clue to the EXTREME how to write fighting scenes!**

**URRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH！！！**

**I apologize if this isn't updated soon enough for some of you who are out there waiting ( if there's _actually_ anyone... ) because I had a week camp overseas and when I came back I just feel like dying! And I should considered myself lucky because I wasn't bitten by any mosquitoes out there. *Phew***

**Once again sorry, even though I said that the chpt would be longer, it's only longer by 1000 words. -.-**

**I feel so hopeless...**

**Anyway, I'm going overseas again tomorrow for two weeks. I'm not sure if I can update the next chpt there but I'll try, Okay?**

**Hope you enjoyed your day as well as this story!**

**Please review! That's the only thing that makes an author happy! Serious!**


	23. Mission 5: Everyone comes together

**A/N: Ciaossu! I somehow managed to find a solution to update here overseas.**

**So let's not waste time on some stupid author's note and just get on with the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. Simple as that.**

* * *

The place was a mess.

Those were the simplest word to describe the current state of Xanxus's office.

The door and walls were destroyed and blackened. The remaining pieces of the walls of the 'Reverse Needle Sphere Form' newest version were scattered around the room, with needles still attached to the broken wall. Smokes was just clearing, the silhouettes of two people standing in the centre of the room can be made out.

*Cough*

*Cough*

"What... just... happened?" Settentrionale asked in between coughs, eyeing the scarred man somewhere also within the pile of broken walls as if he got the answer to the question.

Xanxus obviously ignored the other man and looked around the room, searching for clues to the disruption of their battle. Those crimson pupils of his landed on the pool of blue swimming in the air.

_Alo? _Xanxus's eyes widened when he finally saw the Rain-classed shark of a oh-so familiar person clearly through the blue flames of the Rain. His eyes followed the pool of blue flame as it returned to the Box in the hand of said familiar person, who is still on the ground.

"Heh," the silverette on the floor laughed. "f- fi- nally... was I... a-able... to... he- help... y- you... Argh!" the sentence ended with a painful groan as Squalo clenched his head and squeezed his silver eyes shut as his eyebrows twitched in the pain.

The Varia leader instinctively rushed to his guardian's side and held out his hand to reach for his face but stopped when he saw those pupils under the silver eyelashes open. Those eyes aren't the same silver that he recognises. Instead, they're a dull shade of grey.

"S-" Xanxus's word got cut off as a hand reached up to slap his away. He starred as his supposed-to-be guardian leapt off from the ground and stood beside the other raven in the room.

"Oya? It seems that little Sharky-chan has came back to consciousness for a little while..." the supposed-to-be 'Sharky-chan' said, making eye contact with the guy beside him. "nee? Onii-sama?"

_Onii-sama?! _Now why does that sounds familiar...?

_"I just got approvement from the Ninth and onii-sama."_

"Me- Meri- dionale?"

"Fufu, you found me out huh?" Meridionale, or at least who he, or maybe she, claimed to be, laughed. "Your little Sharky-chan seemed to have broken out of my possession for a minute or two to let out his Box Weapon. The tranquility of the Rain Flame is amazing isn't it? It actually slowed down the Cloud Hedgehog's Cloud Flame, leding to the walls falling apart."

Her explanation doesn't seem to have made its way inside Xanxus's brain, but one word did success in capturing his attention.

"Possession?"

"Fufu, if you have read the report from your Storm and Mist Guardians," Settentrionale explained. "you should know that one of my guardians holds the ability to possess and control others."

_Lacrimare._

"Fufu, don't confuse my husband, Onii-sama." the silverette laughed at 'her' brother before turning back to the Varia boss. "You must be wondering, my dear, how does the power of another person landed in my hands." she laughed again seeing Xanxus listening to her explanation with no interest. "Fufu, I originally don't intend to tell you this early so that I could keep it a surprise, but since I got no choice now... Lacrimare holds the ability of possessing other people, while I holds the ability to use the skills of other people."

Seeing the widened eyes of her husband, Meridionale chuckled. "So I assume you realise now that how was I able to use all of your Sharky-chan's sword techniques."

"One more thing to note, my friend." the Fiancata Sky spoke. "Have you notice that the special abilities of my two guardians_ familiar_?"

_Familiar? _Xanxus was sure that those techniques were nothing that has seen before, but he was sure that he had _heard_ about them before, but where...?

"Fufu, you'll have all the time to remember it. But I do think that now is a good time to stop your thinking and look around you."

Xanxus shifted his glance to the door to see a mask-wearing guy wearing a hooded, black cloak. Before he could question the identity of the guy, he had already started to remove his mask, his hood falling off his head in the process and landing on his shoulders. Brown hair in a little shade of orange was shown before eyes of the same colour opened.

_Chiaro! _Xanxus stared at the Fiancata Sun Guardian he recognized standing by the door before his blood-red pupils turned towards the cloud of indigo flame appearing at the other side of the room. As the flame dispersed, white hair in a little shade of purple can be seen, followed by the indigo suit the guy wore.

_Caligine! _The Mist Guardian of Fiancata whom Xanxus recognized stepped forward so he was standing beside his boss, the Fiancata Sun follows.

"Fufu, nice timing, you guys." Settentrionale grinned at his two guardians. "I believe you have already taken cared of the Varia guardians, no?"

"Yes we did, Boss." both nodded.

Xanxus wasn't all that surprised when he heard the news. Since the boss is in this mansion, there's no doubt his guardians will follow. The great boss of Varia wasn't frightened though. Not one bit. The words 'scared' and 'frightened' just weren't words that would appear in his dictionary. He's neither scared nor frightened when he faced either his old man of that Sawada brat, and he's definitely not going to be now.

And one more thing that he's sure of is he's not at total disadvantage. Only_ half_ of his opponent's guardians were present in the room. So that means...

"Boss!" Xanxus glanced at the door where he heard the voices. There, standing by the door, were Bel, Mammon and Fran. With the addition of two unconscious guys dragged into the room by Bel and Fran. The guy in Bel's hand is wearing the same black cloak as the other two Fiancata Guardian in the room, with his hood resting on his shoulders so that his firey red hair is visible. He is, without a doubt, Assalto. The Storm Guardian of Fiancata Famiglia. The other one in the hand of Fran's is wearing the same suit as the Fiancata Mist on the other side of the room, with the exception of its colour. Instead of indigo, it was green. His hair is blond and looks about the same age as Fran. The kid is probably the Fiancata Thunder Guardian, Baleno. Looking at the state of the two Fiancata Guardians, they most likely attacked the Varia Guardians like the others but didn't managed to succeed.

"Woah, there's more people here than you predicted, Bel-Senpai." Fran commented as he dropped the limbless body on the ground. "What should Me-tachi do?"

"Ushishi." the blond Cheshire laughed as he dumped the body in his hand on the ground too before arming himself with his knives. "The Prince says we get rid of them. Ushishishishishishi~"

"Ahahaha, who is going to get rid of who might not be certain, _your highness_." Caligine laughed as he pulled out a staff that looks like it belongs to a wizard and slammed it onto the floor. Hard. The office vanished slowly as another area replaced it. The area is the same one used against Lussuria. It has an endless bottom and nothing is inside except the Boss along with their perspective guardians. The place is dark without any source of light and you won't even be able to see your own hand if you place it in front of your very own face.

"Nani?!" Bel gasped before he got hit in the stomach, warning him that the battle has already began and he should not let his guards down. Without further delay, the self-proclaimed 'Prince' raised his leg and kicked his opponent, who happened to be Caligine, in the knee, earning him a painful yelp. His next move is throwing the knives in his hand towards the source of the sound, which hit their target since Bel smells blood in the air, even if it's just a little bit.

"Ushishi. Try harder next time if you want to get the Prince." Bel light up his Storm Varia Ring so the little light source helped him see the Fiancata Mist Guardian with blood spilling out from the corner of his mouth. Next thing to do is charging his Storm Box with the Storm-classed flame, his mink jumped out and towards his bleeding target. Just when Caligine was about to be burned into crisps, a gush of blue flame washed away the Storm mink, sending it flying across the area and putting out its flame.

Before Bel could question who did that, he already got his answer when a giant blue whale appeared in front of him, the light from the Rain-class flame of the whale helped him see better the person standing on it with folded arms.

"Lacrimare?!" Bel, as well as Fran, gasped in surprise at the sight of their dead victim from one month ago.

"How did you get yourself back from hell?" Bel pulled out another set of knives ready for attack any time.

"Hm, I haven't fulfilled my promise." the blue-haired guy replied. "Do you still remember, Prince the Ripper? That I said I'll see you guys again 'not-so-soon'?"

"Tch, maa whatever. Just like that shitty twin brother of mine, who has also returned from hell, you'll die in the hand's og the Prince. Again! Ushishishi!" Bel laughed at he sent his knives to the Rain-classed whale, knowing perfectly well that it'll be futile attacking its owner so might as well get rid of the Box Weapon first. With the injury, the whale wasn't able to stay floating and started to fall, leaving its owner to take care of the blond. Lacrimare pulled out his diamonds as well and sent them flying towards the Prince but was blocked by some blue tentacles. Unfortunately, the diamonds are still harder so they broke the tentacles, leaving pieces of thorn paper behind.

"Bel, I suggest you ask for some support or else you have no chance against this guy." Mammon's voice echoed in the once again dark place. "I assist you if you promise to pay me 10 thousand euro after this."

"Too bad, Arcobaleno. Your opponent will be me." Caligine's voice replied.

"Don't decide who my opponent will be by yourself." Mammon's little body turned one round and the next time he faced front, his face under the hood is already gone, cold winds starts blowing from under the hood and soon the room is back to normal again, except that everything is frozen. Walls, table, floor, ceiling,... everything.

"Mu. Seems like you have already given up control of your perception, how weak." the Mist Arcobaleno pulled out an indigo Box from under his cloak. "This should take care of you." his other hand pulled out a Ring, lighting it with the indigo flame of Mist before punching the Ring into the Box, sending the Mist starfishes around the Fiancata Mist. Unfortunately for Mammon, his opponent destroyed every single one of his starfishes that charged towards him by twirling his staff.

"Chiaro, like I was saying previously, I'll take care of the baby. You take care of the kid." Caligine commended to his comrade before setting his focus back to the former Mist Guardian of Varia.

"You got it." Chiaro gave him an assuring win before turning back to the teal-haired teen.

"Ano, Me is not a kid you know? Okay, so maybe some people , or maybe _a lot_ of people, tend to mistake Me for a kid because of my height but seriously dude, Me is not o-" Fran's words were cut off when a monkey, covered with the yellow flame of Sun, charged towards him. On instinct, Fran pulled out his Bel-in-the-box Weapon as a shield from the attack.

"Ite! IteiteiteiteiteiteiteiteiteiteiteiteiteiteIteiteit eiteiteiteiteiteiteiteiteiteiteiteIteiteiteiteitei teiteiteiteiteiteiteiteite!"

"Froggy! What the heck are you doing?!" the sound of pain coming from the Box Weapon distracted Bel from his battle and threw a few knives into his junior's hat.

"Ite. Senpai, just when Me is using my Box Weapon to defend myself you have to come and attack Me from the other side, what's the point of Me's defending then?"

"It's to teach you to get a more proper Box Weapon than that cheekiness and ridiculous trash!"

"Senpai, you just called yourself a trash..."

*Stab Stab*

"A cheekiness and ridiculous trash..."

*Stab Stab*

"Senpai, in front."

"I got it," Bel replied as he ducked the flying jewels. "Froggy should pay attention to his own fight too."

"Yeah yeah..."Fran muttered before creating a new illusion. For a moment, the whole room seemed to be shaking as if there was an earthquake, the next thing you know is that some coloured snow came rushing into the room, almost flooding it.

"Froogy! Isn't it _already_ freezing enough in here?!" Bel shouted as he tried getting the pink-coloured snow off his hair.

_Wait! This smell... _Bel put the finger that got covered with the snow into his mouth.

"This is _ice-cream_! What in the world, Froggy?!"

"Me is hungry..."

The Varia Storm as well as former Mist face-palmed at their junior's words.

"Urgh..." a soft whimper was heard under the pile of ice-cream snow before the snow somewhere near Fran suddenly turned red and started melting. A read head guy came into vision.

"I got woken up by the chilliness and noise." Assalto stated, adjusting his cloak.

"Well, you're here at a pretty good time." Settentrionale grinned. "Help them to take care of the business that you failed to finish."

"Yes, Boss." the right-hand-man nodded before pulling his xyston out, charging towards the nearest Varia, who happened to be Fran. But when the sharp metal made contact with the skin of the boy, his entire being started fading into the air, an obvious illusion.

"Me is over here." the Fiancata Storm looked up to see the frog-hat boy sitting on top of a very tall ice-cream hill, almost touching the ceiling. Sticking his tongue out childishly, he singsanged "Come and get M- woah!" he exclaimed as he backed his head from the incoming diamonds, which led to him falling off the top of the ice-cream hill.

"Ite." Fran rubbed his side in pain before hurriedly lean back before a pillar of fire burst from his original position.

"Hey, aren't you suppose to be fighting Mammon-san?" the frog questioned the purple-haired guy at the other side of the room battling Mammon.

"I'm not the one responsible for it!" Caligine shouted back before hitting one of Mammon's illusioned clones.

"That is _my_ work." Fran turned back to see the Fiancata Sun with his monkey on his shoulder. "The 1st path of Hell grands me power to create illusions."

"The _path of Hell_?"

"The name sounds familiar doesn't it, kid?" Chiaro smirked at the teen, but knowing that he had captured the attention of the other Varias as well. "It's one of your master's power, am I right? Well, I might tell you this now. Each one of us Guardians of the Fiancata Famiglia holds one path of Rokudo Mukuro's Six Paths of Reincarnation, so don't be too surprised later on if you witness any of such skills from us." he shot a glance at the Fiancata Rain who is in battle with Bel. "That guy over there, whom I might add that you once killed, possessed the 6th path of Heavens. That's the reason why he was able to possess your captain." he pointed his thumb at Squalo, who is Meridionale. "Our Boss's sister holds the 2nd path of Hungry Ghosts. That's why she was able to use the skills of both our and your Rain Guardian." he smiled back at Fran. "Does everything make more sense now, kid?"

Fran, who was as startled as the others, nodded a little, not knowing how to respond to that.

_Mammon-san, this may get pretty bad for us._

_Mu, I know. But we still have to take them down, it's a relief that at least we got one of them knocked out already, or else our situation will be worse.  
_

_How are we suppose to defeat them, we're obviously out numbered. And seeing the Boss is already handicapped, our chances are pretty low._

_I could use my teleportation to get us out of here, but that doesn't means that we'll have a chance in defeating them the next time we come face to face._

_Telepath with Senpai and Boss..._

Their conversation ended like that as both Mist Guardians were forced to disconnect out of their thoughts by their opponents' attacks. Mammon having trouble with the illusioned snakes and Fran not knowing how to deal with the Sun monkey.

"Me guessed that I have no choice..." the youngest Varia muttered as he pulled out his 666 Hell Ring out from one of his pockets, quickly put it on his right index finger and lighting it up before injecting the flame into the Box. When he held it out at his opponent, several missiles coated with Mist Flame came bursting out of the Box, charging towards Chiaro's direction. The karate expert manged to duck almost every one of them but the missiles just keep coming in large numbers. Soon he got his side injured, then his left arm, then his right knee, and finally got hit in the stomach and sent flying across the room, crashing into one of the ice pillar.

"Urgh... that was pretty tough... as expected from the Hell Ring..." he sat up against the remaining of the pillar, clutching to his wounded stomach. "But... it'll take more than just that to take me down." his stomach started glowing with the yellow flame of the Sun, Fran gasped when he saw the blood disappearing and all his cuts healed.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Chiaro smirked as he stood up. "My Sun attribute activation is one of the most powerful ones in Southern Italy. It's all thanks to it that he got saved from hell." he glanced at Lacrimare.

Fran jumped back when his opponent delivered a kick towards him

_Mammon-san, luck isn't really on our side now. As long as they have this guy on their side, all their injury will be healed within a second while we don't have Luss on our side..._

_Yeah... the situation is pretty bad..._

_How did Boss and Senpai said?_

_They agreed with me that it'll be even worse than now if we retreat, especially since they could get that Sun Guardian to heal them like you said, while we're going to heal our Sun Guardian..._

_No matter how you look at the situation, it's our disadvantage..._

_Fran, prepare yourself for whatever's ahead of you. Don't let anything surprise you..._

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**A/N: Okay, it's short, it's crappy, whatever you have to say just spill it, I'm prepared for it! *Raise arms in a defensive manner*  
**

**Sorry that this took so long... family business...**

**I can't believe my holiday is just going to end like that... This is just too soon... I'm not ready for school yet!**

**Hope anyone who passed by kindly drop a review, it won't cost you so feel free to just click the button below. *^_^***

**Thank you all very much for your kind attention and (hopefully) reviews!**


	24. Our battle is not over

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait, people! And thank you, those people who have read and reviewed, I'm really happy! ( Even though the number of review is very little... *sigh* )**

**Like I said, school has started, so it's back to monthly update! ( This may not sound like a good thing to some of you, but I really don't have any other choice... sorry for that... )**

**This story ****_may_**** be coming to an end soon ( please do not ask my ****_how_**** soon, because I'm not sure either, depends how long I make each chpt from now on... ). **

**This may sound like a bad thing, and I'm not very happy with the way things are progressing so I hope I could somehow pull off the ending to make this story a memorable one.**

**All your supports will be highly encouraged!**

**Back to the story...**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, blah blah blah...**

* * *

Mammon wrapped his illusionary tentacles around Caligine, trying to suffocate him to death by wrapping especially tight around his neck and chest, causing difficulty to his breathings. But the moment when he thought he had victory in hand, the Mist Arcobaleno was being deemed wrong when his target's body vanished. Before he could register it, he was hit on the head by the said target that was standing behind him now. The pain from his head caused Mammon to lose control of his illusions so all his clones and the ice pillars vanished.

_Shit. This guy... he not only knows how to use illusions but he still have enough combat skills like he_ _was said to be. He probably holds the 4th path of Demons so he could fight like that...  
_

"What is it now, Arcobaleno? 'Already given up control of your perception', huh?" the Fiancate Mist mocked. "Come and realise it now, you're nothing before me."

_Bel, I got an idea to defeat them. But I need your cooperation... _Mammon thought as he began telepathic with the Varia Storm Guardian at the other side of the room.

Once again, the former Mist Guardian of Varia created illusions of clones and made them scatter in the office, disrupting the others battle as well.

"Ahaha, clones again? You're not going to defeat us with just that, you know?" Caligine laughed as he start attacking one of the clones that were the closest to him. But instead of turning into torn paper, the illusionary clone turned back into its original shape again. "It's useless." the clone said. "Don't kid with me." the purple-haired man snarled as he start destroying more and more clones, but they all just turned back into their original forms again.

_Tch, they just keep combining back... it'll never end... unless..._Caligine smirked as he discovered a solution. _I'll just have to take the real one out then. _He took out his Box Weapon and opened it with his lighted Fiancata Mist Ring, illusionary tree trunks started growing from inside the Box and extended towards all the illusionary clones, breaking them all at once.

"Guupia!" all the illusions vanished, leaving an injured Mammon, which is the real one, on the floor.

"How was that? I told you you're nothing before me." Caligine grinned as he pointed the pointed end of his staff at the Mist Arcobaleno's little neck. "I shall finish you off now, then. Any last words, Arcobaleno?"

"How about... _you're using the wrong appellation, you filthy peasant!"_ before the purple-haired man could register his prey's words, he got stabbed in the arm that was holding his weapon. By some creepy-shaped knives!

"What the-"

"Ushishishishi!" the escaped Mammon floated into the air before indigo flames surrounded it, and when they vanished, the one standing there was no longer the hooded infant but a blond with a Cheshire grin. "Operation part one complete, prepare yourself, peasant."

It didn't take the Fiancata Mist to figure out what happened. The former Varia Mist had set illusion around the whole room and switched the Varia members' places so they were all facing different opponents now. That explains why the blond Storm is now standing in front of him, knives ready in hand.

"Haha, don't think that the Arcobaleno is the only one that could have clones." Caligine laughed as he made an illusion of clones of himself, surrounding Bel like Lussuria's foot work. "Now, which one's the real one?"

"Ushishishi, do I look like I care?" Bel snickered as he surrounded the clones with knives attached by wires, which was unknown by his opponent who thought he had somehow made the knives float. The clones moving at blinking speed were stopped by the wires that they had gotten themselves caught in, like fishes in a the net. "Go!" with his hand signal, the wires along with knives attacked the clones from all different directions, all at once.

"Urgh..." a grunt escaped the lips of the real purple-haired man, since he's the only one left after all the clones were destroyed, as he got stabbed on his left shoulder.

"Not too bad, huh?" Caligine starred daggers at the blond as he fallen onto his knees. "As expected of Genius-kun."

"You can save your last word. The Prince has no interest in hearing them." Bel replied as he pulled out more knives. "There's no way to run."

"I'm pretty aware of that..."

"So this is the time when the Prince should say... 'bye-bi'!" Bel laughed as he sent the silver knives that were coated with red Storm flames towards Caligine's chest, abdomen, head, arms, legs and back. There's no way the Fiancata Guardian can survive through that.

Unless...

_Monta, the Prince is leaving it to you... Don't you dare screw up..._

* * *

_Don't you worry, Bel. I've got this. _Mammon sent another message back to the Storm after receiving his words through telepathy. After he had switched place with Bel, he was facing the once dead Rain of Fiancata now.

"Oh? So I'm suppose to take care of a baby now?" Lacrimare murmured under his breath at the sight of his new opponent. "I wonder if I should give a handicap to you..."

"That's not necessary." Mammon answered, taking out his Box Weapon. "Since I'm the one who's going to take this battle." the hooded infant brought out his Mist Starfishes, blocking all the possible paths that the opponent may escape with. That is, if he even think about escaping...

"You're not going to defeat me with just some cheeky Box Weapon, infant." the Rain replied, diamonds between fingers. "Prepare yourself."

"I'll return those words directly back to you."

"What a cheeky brat..." Lacrimare threw the diamonds in the directions of the starfishes, breaking them into pieces. He smirked when he thought the battle is over, but the smile faded as soon as he saw the remains of the starfishes combining and becoming a bigger one.

"Saa, what should you do now?" Mammon provoked.

"Is this all you got?" the blue-haired Rain pulled out another set of diamonds and sent it straight in the direction of the bigger starfish, destroying it once again. The rest of the diamonds were sent to the other starfishes, causing their remains to gather with the others so they ended up uniting as one.

"This should end everything." Lacrimare lighted the diamonds in his hands with Rain Flame and sent them charging towards the only starfish left, shattering them into pieces and landing on the floor.

"Sure." Mammon replied nonchalantly. The Rain was still wondering why the infant didn't seem disappointed by the result of the battle but he soon got his question answered when a Storm Mink, that he failed to notice, charged towards him from behind.

"This battle is over," Mammon repeated as he witnessed the blue-haired guy, who has his whole body covered by the Storm flame of disintegration, falling onto his knees before handing flat on the ground.

"with my victory, that is."

"Come on now, Monta." Bel called out to his teammate from the other side of the room, Mink landing on his shoulder. "We need to help Froggy."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on it..."

"I can't believe you left our baby officer taking care of two enemies." Bel said as they made their way towards their fighting junior. "The other baby besides you of course, Ushishishi." he added seeing the irritated look on Mammon's face. "The Prince isn't sure of the monkey one, but from my experience with the red one, he's no easy peasant to take care of, Froggy might not be able to handle them much longer."

"Senpai, Mammon-san. A little help here~" Fran's monotonous voice asked. The teal-haired teen isn't doing much of a good job attacking, he was defending most of the time with his Bel-Box-Weapon.

"Ushishishi. The Prince to the rescue!" Bel snickered as he injected three knives at the Sun Monkey, stopping it's attack.  
"But it's such a shame that the Prince has to rescue a frog out of all people..."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Complain all you want after finishing the job..."

"My apologies," Chiaro replied as he created illusions of floating chainsaws in the air. "but I won't allow that." the chainsaws start to charge towards the Storm and Mist Guardians of Varia who somehow managed to dodge most of it in time, but still ended up having small cuts here and there.

"Monta, are you capable of handling the red peasant on your own?" Bel asked as he blocked another flying chainsaws with his knives.

"Sure," Mammon replied, turning towards the redhead. "I'll finish this one fast."

"A baby this time? Isn't an emotionless brat annoying enough?" Assalto murmured, obviously not satisfied with his choice of opponent.

"This is already the second time in one round, I'm getting angry..." Mammon's face starts to get darker as the two triangles on his cheek extended.

"And what are you going to do about it...?" the Storm asked with boredom in his voice.

_Bel, Fran,_ _I'm going to use that so be prepared... _Mammon sent the message to both of his teammates before the indigo pacifier around his neck starts to shine.

"Viper Mirage!"

The walls started to twist in some weird manner that _a wall should never behave in_ and the floor starts to get softer. Gravity seemed to be gone and all the people in the room, both fighting ones and non-fighting ones, were floating in the air. The ceiling is spinning as well, for a moment it looked as if the ceiling and ground have merged and the next the ceiling is below their feet and the floor is above their head.

"What the hell is this?!" both guardians of the Fiancata Famiglia exclaimed at the sudden lost of footing.

"If you lack concentration..." Mammon's, who has vanished by then, voice echoed in the room. "there's no way you're getting out of here alive."

"Assalto, I think we'll take care of the two kids first," Chiaro suggested as he tried to focus all of his attention on his enemies. "since the baby is already gone, we might as well take care of whatever is before us first."

"Fine by me." Assalto replied and he charged towards Fran while Chiaro is busy dealing with Bel.

"Mammon-san, is actually this serious..." Fran muttered as he dodged the attack from the Fiancata Storm. "Guess Me should put in some effort as well..." he pulled out one of the knives Bel had stabbed him with on his giant frog hat.

"And what are _you_ going to do with such a cheesy weapon?" Assalto provoked. "In addition, you don't look like you're any good with combats."

"Hey! Whose weapon are you calling 'cheesy'?!" Bel snarled as he sent his Storm Mink to battle with the monkey.

"True, but this is some trick that Me had learned from Mammon-san." Fran answered, twirling the knife like how Bel always does. "And Me guarantee that this is pretty useful..."

The teen with the giant frog hat vanished into thin air at the words, leaving a dumbfounded Assalto wondering where he had gone... Until he got stabbed right from the back.

"Argh! Who the hel-"

"I said that this will be useful, didn't I?"

"You... the frog kid?" the Storm gathered all his energy to turn his head until the big blue eyes of the frog hat, that a teal-haired kid whom we all know, wears is visible.

"Bingo." Fran laughed as he pulled out the knife mercilessly, not caring that it hurts the enemy a lot. Hey, he's going to die already, why still care if he'll feel pain?

"Assalto!" the Fiancata Sun hurriedly rushed to his fallen teammate's side, checking the wound on his back. "Hang in there! Assalto!" seeing that the Storm didn't give any sign of respond, Chiaro summoned his monkey, whose tail started glowing with the sparkling Sun Flame, and placed it near the wound, multiplying new cells in the skin.

"How is it? Do you feel any better?" Chiaro asked with concern in his voice.

"Ah..." the crimson eyes of the Storm glared at the Sun, but somehow... they look different from usual... "much better... thanks for the help, you trash."

"Huh?" now that wasn't the voice of the Assalto he knows, not to mention the choice of words.

Indigo mist surrounded the red-haired man and revealed a man with the same crimson eyes but different hair colour. Black. "Take this as a thank-you-gift." the man grinned as he pulled out a pistol from under his jacket and shot Chiaro right in the abdomen, knocking him out.

"Job well-done, Boss." Fran gave a thumbs-up at the raven's work. "KO'ed in one shot."

"Now..." Mammon appeared as the illusion vanished, with everyone landing back on the floor. "where were we?" the eyes under the giant hood glared at the duo who still don't have a single scratch on their body.

"Your guardians are more or less dead and your weapon to get rid of Boss is destroyed. What else do you have left?" Bel insulted.

"Well then, it'll just be you and us then." Squalo, or Meridionale, replied, preparing his, or her, sword.

"Are you under-estimating us?" Bel snickered. "Surely you peasants couldn't be thinking that just the two of you will stand any chance against us, could you?"

"Now, now. Who knows?" Settentrionale smiled. "My cute little sister, I'll be entrusting them to you."

"You can count on me, Onii-sama."

"What are you going to do? For your information, we're not going to hesitate on destroying that body even if it belongs to our captain." Mammon challenged the silverette, who doesn't seem to take his words seriously.

"Fufu, his body is just a plus. His abilities are all that I need."

"Squalo may be our second strongest member, but he's still no match for Boss."

"That's what Onii-sama is for, I'll just be taking care of the three of you."

"What a despicable girl..."

"Hai hai, chit-chat time is over, little kids." the silverette ended the conversation by charging towards Bel first, but the blow was blocked by the blond's knives. Meridionale hurriedly jumped back and side-stepped as three knives flew from behind her and directly hit Bel.

"Argh! What the hell?!" Bel coughed as he pulled out the weapon and analysed it, confirming that it's one of his very own knives.

"Sorry, Senpai." Fran apologized from behind the Fiancata Cloud, with a few remaining knives in his hand. "I missed."

"Tch, useless frog."

"That's really mean, Senpai."

"LIKE THE PRINCE CARES?!"

"Is now really a good time to be having inside-battles?" Meridionale asked sarcastically. "Very well, it'll just make my job easier then."

"Don't over-estimate yourself." Mammon created illusionary tentacles and wrapped them around the silverette until he was sure that she would suffocate to death. But the tentacles were sliced with the sword attached to her left hand, sending the hooded infant to be knocked to the corner of the room. Knives were sent to her direction once again, by Bel this time, and with just a tilt of her head was she able to avoid the attack. Another set of knives were sent to her from behind, most probably by Fran again, and with a swing of the sword she sent them flying to the opposite direction. Feeling rather proud of herself, Meridionale start making her way towards Bel, who was in front of her, but she stopped when she got cut at the cheek.

"Ushishi, don't try to move too much if you wish to remain in one piece." Bel laughed, clearly knowing the reason behind the cut.

"Have you forgotten something, little Prince?" Meridionale asked. "This isn't my body..." she raised her sword, "so it means that..." placed it over her right wrist "I won't feel any pain of this body." and cut it. Crimson blood flowed out and the Fiancata Cloud gave no emotion of pain, but instead looked rather enjoyable at the bloody sight. If anyone who don't know the situation saw this, he will definitely think that she's a masochist.

"Oh yeah!" Fran exclaimed. "You totally forgot about that, Bel-Senpai."

"Shut up, stupid frog!"

STAB

STAB

"Says the self-proclaimed genius who forgot about the key point of defeating an enemy."

"The Prince take that as the shitty frog wishes for an early death."

"Now, now. Why would Me wish for that?"

"You two idiots... Maybe I'll just let you get yourselves killed by each other..." the Fiancata Cloud muttered at the sight in front of her, mentally sweat-dropped. The room started to shake violently, Meridionale hurriedly turned around to see waves of water coming in her direction, washing her away and out of the room. The door shut behind her as the illusion stopped.

"It'll be all right as long as she don't interfere with our business, right?" Mammon questioned, pating the dust away from his cloak.

"We'll still have to figure out a way to get her spirit out of Captain's body though." Fran pointed out.

"We can figure that out later, let's take care of the peasant's brother first." Bel pointed a knife at the only Fiancata in the room who is still standing.

"Now," Xanxus pointed his pistol at Settentrionale. "it's payback time."

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**A/N: Sorry for the super late update, you guys! I know I'm the one to blame but please still have some hope in this story until it ends okay? I don't want this story to leave a bad impression on the readers! *bow Gokudera-style N-times*  
**

**Once again, thank you all for sticking with this story for so long. I really had a great time writing, even though I keep having a hard time every now and then... **

**I also like to thank all of you for reviewing, favouriting and following this story. I'm really glad there's some people who actually liked my story.**

**Before I end off, please review! And once again, THANK YOU! ^^**


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